A Second Glance, Book IV
by Valkrez
Summary: It's been three years and they've both grown, but will they be able to grow together? A parallel-cannon story taking place in Avatar: Legend of Korra book 4
1. Prologue

_Author's Note: Hello and welcome to Book 4 of 'A Second Glance', a parallel cannon story taking place in Avatar: Legend of Korra. I do not have any affiliations to Nickelodeon, who owns the universe and characters of Avatar and this is strictly a fan-made work._

* * *

 _Six Months after the Battle at Laghima's Peak_

There was a howl from the bay, low and sad on the early current. It pierced the frigid night and drifted atop the snow-rimmed rooftops all the way to the third floor window of the Royal Palace, filling Korra's room with its mournful call. She groaned in her sleep, twisting away from the images that flashed in front of her inner eye and then she erupted out of dream into the reality of the ship's peal. Confused and frightened, the Avatar lifted her fists to ward off the danger she knew was lurking just at the edges of her room but there was nothing but the ship's horn and the fluttering of her curtains.

Gasping for breath and damp with sweat, Korra tried to focus on her heart beat and find the solace of her spiritual center. It was always in her weakest moments that her connection to Raava was strongest and yet even as afraid as she was she only met silence within and without. Raava did not answer.

"Damnit," she croaked softly and fell backwards into the pillows of her bed, chest rolling unsteadily.

Six months. It had been six months since her attack by the Red Lotus and still she wasn't back to her normal self. Instead she was a weak, pitiable shade of what she had always thought herself to be and there was no real end in sight. Was this just it then? Her tenure as the Avatar was finished, and she was just going to roam the halls of the Royal Palace until she finally shriveled enough for the next Avatar cycle to take her place?

"Damnit!" She repeated, louder, and clenched her fist into her sheets. It wasn't fair. She'd only barely started her duties as the Avatar after seventeen years closeted away in the snow and ice and already she was finished: trapped where she had begun. It simply wasn't fair.

For a while, the girl stared vengefully at the ceiling and mentally ticked through all the ways that her circumstance was unjustified, forcing herself to think of all the things she would not experience and all of the people whom she would miss.

Tenzin and the airbenders were making their way to the edges of the continent to help the unfortunate. Bolin was going to the Earth Kingdom to help restore peace. Mako was scouring the Republic City streets for villainy. And Asami...

Korra shut her eyes and held her breath.

Asami.

Beneath her mattress were six letters from the heiress, one for each month Korra had been away. In them were words of gentle encouragement, saturated with love along with town gossip and talk about a new building project which the engineer was obviously giddy to be working on. A part of Korra was absolutely thrilled to imagine her girlfriend elbow-deep in graph paper and blueprint designs; using her genius to create, which was her greatest pleasure. Unfortunately, even the fantasy of Asami made Korra hurt.

She sat up again and manually moved her legs to the edge of the bed. She could wiggle her toes and rotate her ankles, some, but the connection from knee to ankle still felt impossible and she was all but forlorn that her hips would ever again tell her knees to bend. She stared down at her useless legs, forced to remember why it was that she'd left Asami in the first place.

She was simply no use any longer, not as an Avatar and not as a girlfriend.

Perhaps it was the surreal quality of the hour, or the mood of grim dreams which still hovered at the edge of her senses, but Korra felt suddenly the need to make a decision.

The girl reached for her wheelchair and, with what had become practiced motions, slipped herself into it to roll across the room to her writing desk. She clicked on the lamp and opened a rarely-used drawer, riffling for parchment which she only assumed would be available. Sure enough, there was a stack of letterhead and a few pens in another drawer, and she set these out under the light.

Her pentip hovered a moment, unsure, before she steadied her resolve.

 _'Asami',_

Korra bit her lip, studying the word. She wanted, very badly, to cross it out and rewrite 'Sweetheart', remembering reading those same lines in Aang's practiced script from a lifetime ago. After a few more moments of consideration however, she moved on.

 _'I know I said I'd write more, sorry about that. It's not really my thing after all, I guess. I really like your letters though. That's great news about the contract bid. I know you'll get it. And I hope one day I can see the rail line you're going to build. But, I think I need to tell you that it won't be any time soon. In fact, I don't know when or if I'll ever come back to Republic City. I know that isn't what you wanted to hear, but after all this time nothings changing,'_

She paused again, looking at the false finality in her word choice. Some things had changed, after all. She could move her feet, somewhat, and six months ago that had been but a dream. Master Katara put hours of effort into her healing and Korra was grateful, but the fact that it simply wasn't good enough was the sting which she felt so strongly in her breast that night.

 _'At least, not the way I want it to. Katara is trying and I'm lucky to have her, but so many things are just different now.'_

Too many things were different, in fact, and coming to terms with that wasn't something Korra was handling very well. That, in essence, was how her guilt had begun to grow. The Avatar sighed aloud and put her pen back to the paper.

 _'That's why I want you to stop waiting for me. I can't be with you the way that you deserve and it will be easier on us both if we-'_

She felt her mouth go dry. A year ago she'd stood in the snow, broken and frightened, and told Asami that she wasn't able to handle their relationship. She had thought that she'd overcome those fears and grown enough to be able to take on the mantle of someone's love but maybe she was wrong again after all. Here she was again, broken and afraid, and she wanted to end her relationship with Asami Sato but at least this time her reasons made a little more sense. Didn't they?

Asami had already waited half a year for her, and it wasn't fair to keep her in some love-lorn stasis as she had. The engineer was young, and beautiful, and in the middle of a fabulous social circle with all manner of people desperately vying for a chance to get to know the young owner of Future Industries. It seemed cruel to ask her to wait for a half-paralyzed girlfriend an ocean away, who could barely drag herself into her bed at night let alone into someone else's. And the more time which passed between them, the guiltier Korra felt at leaving Asami alone in Republic City. At least if she ended their tie, then Asami would have the chance to find someone who could give her what Korra couldn't and Korra herself could be free to let go of one more guilt.

The Avatar swallowed, forcefully, and continued.

 _'if we ended what we had. I want you to find someone-'_ no she didn't. _'who can really be there for you, because I don't think that's me anymore._

 _I'm sorry. I never wanted to hurt you.'_

Though, that was what she was going to do anyway, wasn't it? Asami was going to be crushed, and she could even imagine the way which her brows would worry together when she read the letter; possibly standing in front of her desk, upright with excitement over finally having a correspondence from her long-absent girlfriend. Then she'd look up, eyes glazed, and place the letter onto her folio without a word. She'd cry, perhaps in private, but it would be short and then she'd want to fix the problem at hand. She'd write a letter back, attempting to convince Korra that she was wrong and that she didn't mind the waiting but the thought made Korra frown darker.

 _'I know that this is for the best now, even if it's the hard thing to do. Just know that I'll always care about you, and I'll always be your friend.'_

-Korra

She finished the signature and, without re-reading her words, she quickly folded the letter and tucked it into an envelope. She scribbled a memorized address, which had been scoured into her memory from re-reading Asami's letters over and over, and then she placed the missive on her desk table. She'd hand it over to the palace valet for the post first thing in the morning, and then it would be done.

Korra sighed again, softer, and looked at the letter which glowed under the light of the desk lamp.

Or, she could just toss into the rubbish, and she wouldn't have to loose Asami after all.

Where, however, was the logic in that? This was for Asami's own good, and her's as well. Clinging to their bond like some hopeful life-line was the selfish decision in all of this and she'd never be able to forgive herself for keeping Asami bound to a vain dream. She wasn't coming back; not like this. They both needed to let go.

Korra clicked the light back off and rolled her way back to the bed, climbing carefully into her warm winter blankets to snuggle herself deep into the dark comfort. Strangely, despite feeling more alone than ever, it was also morbidly gratifying to sever this last link to her former life. Now, there was one less person to disappoint.

* * *

Asami sat in the stateroom aboard her steam yacht, nervously reading through a docket of quarterly reports which failed to fully register in the engineer's troubled mind. She found herself scanning along the same graph nearly four times before giving up and closing the folio, sighing tersely. The ship, a smaller version of her mercantile vessel, rocked on its mooring in the Harbor City bay and she risked a glance at the porthole to see the late afternoon outside; she was disappointed to realize that the clouds had hardly moved since the last time she'd checked.

A knock on her cabin door whipped her quickly away from her work however and she called out in a hasty voice, "Yes?"

"Miss Sato? Someone's here from the palace, ma'am."

Asami was on her feet and rushing for the door before the deckhand had finished his sentence. She'd been docked in the harbor for an hour, almost, and it had taken all of the engineer's self control to wait quietly onboard her ship rather than march up to the Royal Palace uninvited and unannounced. Instead, she'd sent a telegram to the royal office to let Korra know that she'd arrived and wanted to arrange for a neutral place to meet. Of course, she hadn't worded the missive in those terms but it was what an invitation to dinner had essentially translated to.

Two weeks ago she'd received a letter from Korra, saturated with so much self-loathing it was a torment to read through. Asami had waited for six months, giving Korra all the space a person could possibly need, but the letter she'd received was proof that she had let _too_ much go unsaid. Korra was in obvious pain and her isolation was only driving her further away from her and that was something Asami refused to allow. She had taken a few days to make arrangements for her office and then scheduled a southern tour, intent on seeing her girlfriend and making herself clear in no uncertain terms that their relationship was far from over. It was only when she actually pulled into the harbor though that she began to second guess the wisdom in her aggressive reappearance in Korra's life and so she'd allowed manners to take hold of her better judgement. The result was a precisely written and no-doubt surprising telegram, delivered to Korra herself.

But, she had not received a telegram in response. Instead, Korra had actually come on her own and Asami was practically giddy with nerves as she hurried through the corridor towards the topdeck, opening the hatch with shaking hands and casting her jade-hued gaze about for the Water Tribe gi-

Asami stopped, hand still holding the cabin latch as Tonraq, hair lifted in the seabreeze, turned to calmly regard her.

"Asami," he greeted warmly and took a step forward.

As veteran of countless galas, balls, and socialite soirees Asami was primed for quick adaptation and she allowed her disappointment to melt off her shoulders as she moved to take Tonraq's hand in a shake.

"Chief Tonraq," she squeezed his hand and tried to not peer around his shoulder in case Korra was nearby. "It's so nice to see you. How are you?"

"I'm very well," he responded in that same steady tone, locking eyes with her. "But I'm not the one you were expecting, am I?"

She felt her cheeks blush and dropped her hand, forcing herself to not comb back her hair as a way to deflect.

"No, sir."

He nodded. "May I suggest we have a cup of tea? I think we should talk."

"Oh," she blinked, feeling suddenly embarrassed and rude. "Of course. We can go below deck," she turned to escort him, and heard the Southern Water Tribe chief's heavy footsteps follow her into the main galley where she quickly requested the ship's cook to bring them both a cup of white ginseng. While the water was put on to boil she took a seat across from Tonraq, who was examining the stately galley with interest.

"These modern ships always manage to take me by surprise. I guess I'm more old fashioned than I like to admit," he remarked before smiling back at her. "I like my ships simple, narrow, and fast."

Asami smirked. "I don't think that traditional ships are going to disappear any time soon. They just aren't as ready for competitive mercantile shipping."

"And being wary of that is what makes me old fashioned," he chuckled. He leveled his soft gaze on her again and cleared his throat. "What are you doing here, Asami?"

The engineer swallowed, eyes dropping a moment. She had expected the question but the response, which hinged upon Tonraq's knowledge of her and Korra's relationship, was still delicate.

"I have a vendor here in Harbor City who I needed to hash some new contracts out with, and I figured I could see Korra while I was this far south."

It was a half truth, but easily believable, she thought. Asami was usually a pretty skilled liar, when it suited her, but Tonraq's slight frown implied that he was not entirely convinced.

The galley door swung open and a tray of steaming tea and small porcelain cups was laid down in front of them. Asami thanked the cook and put her attention on pouring both her and her guest a cup, hoping that Tonraq's speculative frown would vanish.

The chief took the cup that was handed to him, then a heavy sigh deflated from his massive chest.

"I don't think that you should see Korra," he said slowly and Asami felt her stomach clench with a chill hand. "It's not the right time."

"Right time?" She repeated, staring back at him, her tea poised between her fingers. "It's been over six months."

He nodded. "I know, and so does Korra. She knows better than anyone, and she knows that it's not the right time."

"Did she send you?"

"No. To the best of my knowledge, she doesn't know you're here. She was with Master Katara today, and I managed to catch your telegram before it got to her and decided that I should come down here and speak to you myself. Face to face."

The coolness in Asami's stomach only seemed to worsen. "Why would you do that?"

"Because, Asami, I needed to know if you've really thought about what you're doing."

"I'm visiting Korra. I haven't seen her in months, I have no idea how her healing is going, she's only written me one letter-"

"What did it say?" His rumbling voice broke easily through her bluster. "The letter she wrote?"

"...It said that she didn't want to see me."

He nodded, lips pressed grimly. "I thought that it might have. Korra hasn't sent any letters to anyone, and I only knew that she sent one to you because Senna told me. I was actually hoping that she was writing for you to come visit, but when Senna asked her about it she said that she didn't want any visitors. So, I have to ask you, what are you doing?"

Asami felt her shoulders start to shake, and she put down her tea. "I don't know," she gasped from between her teeth and closed her eyes. "I just miss her so much, and I know she's in pain and alone. I know she doesn't want to really break up, she's just saying that because she feels responsible."

Tonraq put down his tea as well and leaned his elbow on the table, reaching to wrap her slender hand in his rough, massive palm.

"You're probably right. In fact, I know you're right, but that's not what matters here. You think you're going to help her, just like the rest of us, and just like the rest of us you have to accept that only she can help herself now. Korra's as stubborn and independent as she always was, getting hurt didn't change that. What do you think she'll say when she sees one more person she respects show up to help her?"

Asami shook her head, swallowing back the quiver in her voice. "She always needs someone's help. You even said that."

"No, I said that she'll have my help when she asks for it. Korra knows that she can reach out to you, she's _choosing_ not to."

She took in a difficult, soggy breath. "So, what now? I'm just supposed to go home and forget about her?"

Tonraq leaned back into his chair again. "You may not believe me, but its much harder when you're young. You think that everything is permanent, like traditional fishing sails, but then you get a little older and start to realize that nothing lasts forever: everything changes. Including ships. Including hearts."

Asami shook her head, almost vehemently. "That's not true."

"You've been a good..." he hesitated for a half moment. "Companion, to my daughter. A lot better than that Mako kid. I know how much you care about her, and I see that you have a lot of that care in you. But now it may be best if you care about yourself for a little while. I know that Korra will heal, she's too hard-headed not to, and when she does she'll know that there's really nothing in the world she can't do. Maybe then, she'll reach out again. You need to give her that chance. For both of your sakes."

Asami sat very still, not trusting herself to speak again and while she was forced by emotional constraints to keep silent she was also forced to hear what Tonraq had said. Finally, after she'd patted away the wet at the corners of her eyes and sipped her tea to clear her throat, she raised her gaze back to Tonraq's.

"Am I just being silly?"

"You're not being silly," he shook his head. "You're just in love."

"...Did Korra tell you, about us?"

He shook his head again. "No, I just put two and two together. Can't say I expected it, but can't say that I expected for my daughter to be the Avatar either. Once you realize that you have no control over who your child really is, you get a little less surprised by these things."

She gave a damp chuckle and cleared her throat again. "Thank you, for being so..." she stalled, unsure of how she wanted to define this painful and bizarre conversation. "Kind."

He smiled again. "You're welcome. And, for what it's worth," he started to shuffle to his feet. "I do hope Korra reaches out to you again some day. That'd be a real load off my mind."

She smiled a little and tried to rise as well but he waved a hand to pause her. "I can see my way out, sit and enjoy your tea. Take care of yourself, Asami. I'll see you again."

She nodded again and offered him a small wave, and then Tonraq turned for the stairs topdeck and left her in the galley alone with the wafting vapor of her teapot and the dark cloud of her thoughts.


	2. Chapter 1

The ocean wind was an entity of greater size and strength than Korra could compare, and from the sloop's rudder she admired it with repose. It breathed into her sails, bowing them forward with such stubborn directive it was as if the sea itself was bidding her a fond journey to her destination. Back to Republic City. Back to the world.

Korra smirked a little at the thought, and then the evening mists finally began to part and the golden flicker of civilized life dazzled in her eye. Republic City had always been at its most vivacious at night. Even a mile out from the bay she could sense the collective heartbeat of the city, or perhaps she simply imagined it in her excitement, and it filled her with a mingled joy and dread. It had been two and a half years since she had been on the continent, and news of the changing trends, economic rises, and restless political landscape had traveled even as far as the South. The world was in rapid flux, but would the Avatar be prepared for it?

Korra believed so, in some ways. She certainly felt different: more calm, less agitated. Years of studying the strength of her steps had taught her to look before leaping. Nights of gazing into dancing sky had filled her with gentle appreciation for the unattainable beauty in her surroundings. Hours of searching in vain for Raava had taught her to look inward. But, what hadn't changed? That, she brooded as her hands tended the sail-lines, would be what she was about to discover. It was difficult to gauge oneself against a stagnant measure after all, and the South had finally become a trammel to her healing. Once she finally realized that, it had been a simple enough decision for her to leave.

She was grateful, of course, for all the support and care that her parents, trainers, and Katara had given. She was once again walking; and more than that she was leaping, running, fighting, and bending and all thanks to the loving help from home... but she wasn't whole yet, and somehow Korra knew she'd never find the reason why as long as she was in the South Pole. So, she bid farewell to her homeland once again and turned east on her own. And, now that the lights of Republic City were dancing in front of her, she finally felt a bubbling eagerness within her veins.

Throughout the days that she'd been sailing, alone and solitary on the sea, Korra had chewed on the wisdom of her embarking and as always, the sea had been unforgiving in its stoic demand for honesty. On the rolling waves she had to admit several truths, and they sat on her anxious heart even as she entered into the bay.

She was afraid.

She was afraid that the world needed her.

She was afraid that the world did not.

She was afraid that she'd never find the way to connect to Raava again.

She was afraid other people would know she wasn't the same.

She was afraid that Republic City was not the right place to go.

So, why did she insist? Why was this 'second home' where she wanted to be so badly?

Because, she had come to admit, she missed it. The Temple, the city, and the people in it. She missed Mako's eye-rolling and Bolin's excited grin, she missed the airbender children and Tenzin's exasperation, Lin Beifong's constant disapproval, and more than anyone she missed Asami Sato.

Korra cut a thoughtful sigh.

Two years ago she had written to Asami that she couldn't be what the other girl deserved. Two years ago she had told the heiress to forget about her. However, as the sloop cut through the waves towards Air Temple island and the distant sounds of the brilliantly-lit Arena traveled faintly on the breeze she found her heart thundering at the realization that she was really there, and so was Asami.

Her gaze flicked on instinct to the northeast of the city, in the direction of the Sato estate. Was Asami there now? Sleeping with her hand curled upon her hair and dreaming of whirling gears? No, she was probably at one of the city cocktail lounges, captivating hearts and ears with little else but a chuckle and a glance. She was being beautiful, and affluent, and she probably never thought about her at all. But, she was here, and Korra realized in a fresh and sudden surge of excitement that she was going to go find her immediately. Wouldn't that be grand, to burst into some snobbish party on her own two legs and pose in the doorway? What would Asami do? Halt in the middle of her dance, stunned with amaze, and then rush towards her to embrace her? She'd be so proud to see Korra walking again, and then Korra would put her arms around her like she never thought she'd be able to again and she'd feel brave like she used to.

Then, she'd apologize for being gone so long and tell her that-

Korra's fantasizing snapped to a sudden, harsh close as the breakwaters of Air Temple Island drew upon her port side and she felt her heartbeat violently skip. Standing atop the black rise of stone was a figure, outlined in perfect white, and gazing down at her with glowing ambivalence.

Inconceivably, what she looked up at was an image of her own body but it wasn't her: it was a reflection of something she had almost forgotten and it watched her drift near in malevolent silence. Korra had a moment of disbelief as she stared back at the apparition, but something within knew at once what it was she looking at and that part of her recoiled. The hands on the rudder tightened their grip, and then the sloop was turning to starboard.

She could still feel the presence at her back, watching her retreat, but with her heartbeat thundering in her temples she dared not risk a glance to see if it remained. That _thing_ , whatever it could be called, was somehow her and Korra realized in a moment that she was not prepared for it. Dreams of her family and friends in Republic City dissipated the instant that presence revealed itself and Korra knew that she'd been lying, even at sea. She couldn't just come back, not yet, and suddenly she had no idea where she would go.

* * *

A collection of well-dressed and lovely women spilled from the light of the restaurant to the walkway, giggling like hens over some joke they'd already forgotten. Asami was at the edge of the party, amused by the general foolishness and helping one girl keep her feet after too many martinis. Their strapping gents were close behind, attempting to herd their dates towards the cars even if they weren't much better off themselves.

"Look," one young woman gasped and pointed down the busy thoroughfare. From this angle, they could actually see a sliver's worth of the bay. "That's a strange fog, isn't it?"

She looked back at the rest of the group for affirmation and Asami followed her direction, then tutted with surprise. A blanket of unseasonably thick white fog was coming in off the bay, and so suddenly.

"You don't think it's gonna be another of those dark avatars, do you?" She asked next, drunk enough to actually voice such an idea aloud.

Asami rolled her eyes and her evening's date, whose father owned a titanium mine, harrumphed. "Ask Asami, she knows the Avatar."

"Oh, that's right!" Seven pairs of eyes swiveled towards her but Asami just raised a hand.

"There was just the one dark avatar and Korra took care of him for good. Now we're going to be late if you guys don't hurry up," and she gestured towards the cars. She didn't really care for her socialite entourage but she didn't know very many people that could afford (or would enjoy) a kabuki at the Plaza and besides, rubbing elbows was still part of her job. The gaggle of beautiful wealth laughed and slumped towards the waiting cars but, left at their tail, Asami looked out at the bay once more. It was curious, she thought, that the fog had come in so suddenly. It was almost unnatural.

"Miss Asami?" Her date took her elbow and she glanced back at his handsome features, shaking away her musings at once.

"Let's go," she agreed pleasantly and slipped her arm partially through his elbow to walk him to the rest of the party, quickly forgetting the fog altogether.

* * *

 _Author's Note: A very brief chapter to set the tone of the piece._

 _Next time: So, what have Korra and Asami been doing in this time apart, anyway?_


	3. Chapter 2

"Are you excited?" Yaolin asked from his side of the tea table, tilting his head at her in a way he thought charming. "The Avatar's set to arrive in a few days, isn't she?"

Elegantly, Asami lifted the teacup to her lips and tasted the heat of it before flicking her gaze to her tablemate. "Of course," she responded, using the cup to hide any treacherous tremor of her lips. "Korra's one of my best friends. It'll be great to see her."

His solid brows knitted together at her but a waiter appeared, dropping a ticket in a tray on the edge of their table. At once, Yaolin reached for it but Asami was quicker.

"Not today," she smirked, taking the bill and not even pausing to glance at the numbers. She opened her pocketbook while Yaolin scowled.

"I would like to pay," he protested with all his upperclass modesty. "Aren't you going to let me treat you?"

She shook her head as she pulled a few notes from her wallet. "No, because that would make this a date," she placed the cash on the tray and looked for the waiter. "And we're not doing that again."

Yaolin huffed. "But it went rather well the last time."

She shot him a harrowing glance over the table's centerpiece. "Your other girlfriends seemed to think the same thing."

He chuckled back. "I was a younger man, and very foolish. I was..." he shrugged, looking for the appropriate word. "Exploring the options Republic City has to offer, but I know what I want now."

"If you say that you've figured out you want me, I'll have to actually kick you off the terrace this time," she responded and took another sip of her tea. He huffed, disappointed.

"Fine, fine. Have things your way, Asami."

"I usually do. It's sort of habit from running Future Industries."

"Speaking of, I heard your father contacted the Journal. I think he wants to write an exposé."

The cup in Asami's hand paused. "Exposé? On what?"

He shrugged. "His involvement in that uprising, I guess. I heard it from the editor himself. You know we play at the same courts."

"What else did he tell you?" She demanded, ignoring Yaolin's attempt to clout his social connections.

"Just that he wanted to make a formal disclosure. I think it's some sort of atonement, but I half thought you were behind it."

"Me?" Her voice sharpened dangerously. "Why would I be behind something like that?"

He gestured with an open palm. "Public relations? You've done a terrific job vindicating Future Industries but the name Hiroshi still rings bells in the Republic. Don't get offended, Asami. I think it's a rather clever move."

She shifted back from the table abruptly, gathering up her handbag and arranging her skirt. "No one, especially me, wants to hear what my father has to say."

'But I guess I'll have to tell him that myself,' she added privately.

Yoalin looked surprised by her obvious intent to leave the table. "Asami, please. I really do want to see you again. Will you reconsider?"

She huffed, clasping her purse closed, and looked down at him. "Even if I did, I'd come to the same conclusion. Have a good afternoon, Yaolin," she remarked and turned to leave the restaurant. Her mind was already turning quickly away from Yaolin altogether and towards this new problem of her father making life difficult even from behind bars. He'd been writing her letters for years, consistently, and it was more likely to her mind that this latest attempt at reaching the outside world had less to do with Republic City and more to do with her. Hiroshi was a very intelligent man, and if he couldn't talk to her directly, then he'd find some other means. Altogether, what this meant to Asami was that it might finally be time that she nip this phase of her life in the bud.

* * *

Korra was struck by the golden afternoon light that flooded the hay barn so suddenly, almost blinding her for a few brief heartbeats. She blinked away the circles which burned into her eyes and glared at the silhouette standing in the open doorway.

"Nabi?"

"Yeah?" A girl of seventeen, bright eyed and bright-cheeked, stepped to join her in the cooler shadows and Korra paused in her work, leaning on her hay pike. The Earth Kingdom girl tilted her head, still grinning. "Here," she offered up a glass of milk and Korra arched an eyebrow, taken aback.

"Um, thanks." She reached to take the glass, still confused as to why it had appeared in the first place. She hadn't seen the other girl around the farm all afternoon.

"You didn't take a break, you know. I know you're new here, but you're supposed to take a break for lunch."

"Oh, right," she made a chagrinned shrug and sipped at the glass. "Your uncle said to clean the barn, I guess I got a little focused."

'Especially since I can't use airbending.'

The barn, a two story structure, was somewhere in the Earth Kingdom breadbasket and the sign out in front of the ranch had read 'Help Wanted' for about three weeks, according to the older man who ran the stead along with his wife and niece. After almost six months on her own, Korra had run through the money her father had sent her off with and odd jobs like the Bok Ranch were what was keeping her during this journey from random spot to random place. She'd made a good bit of coin when she'd sold her sloop, but buying her way back into the Earth Kingdom hadn't been cheap and no matter where she went, Korra always managed to find someone in greater need than herself. She didn't have the best head for money in the first place, and she found it slipping through her fingers despite her minimalist needs.

Nabi smirked. "Well, don't skip out on dinner too..." she colored slightly, a gesture that caught Korra's attention as being out of place. "Sometimes I like to make a picnic in the loft." She glanced at the overhead loft space and Korra followed her look.

"Oh yeah? I bet that's nice," she agreed offhandedly and took another draught of her glass.

"We could hangout up there later, if you want."

The Water Tribe girl looked back at her and shrugged again. "Uh, sure. We can do that." Since she had shown up at the front door a week ago, asking about what sort of help the ranch needed, Nabi had been a fast companion. Korra had the impression that not very many people came out this far from the village, and Nabi seemed almost desperately lonely in a way that she could relate to. Once upon a time, Korra would have been more thankful for the sort of open friendliness which Nabi approached her with but after Zaheer, it was sometimes difficult for her to meet another person's smile.

Nabi positively beamed at Korra's agreement, however. "Great, I'll bring us a basket. Just be there at dinner time."

She couldn't help but to chuckle at her enthusiasm. "Okay, I'll be there."

The girl turned to go back to whichever chore she was supposed to be at, and Korra looked around at the piles of old filth she was still tasked with shoveling out of the barn. At least, if she finished, dinner wouldn't be a pungent experience.

* * *

Sometime close to sunset, Korra finished putting away the last of the tools and, after carefully checking that no one was around to see, bent some water from nearby bucket to wash the grime from her arms and face. She'd introduced herself as a traveling refugee from another village, and a waterbender in the Earth Kingdom wasn't something she wanted to explain. It was still obvious from her rich coloring and blue eyes that she was Water Tribe, but some minor earthbending settled the idea that she belonged in the Earth Kingdom. Playing to the assumption that she was just another wanderer, no one brought up names like 'Korra' or 'Avatar', which was exactly what she wanted.

Six months ago she had come to the conclusion that she wasn't ready to be the Avatar, not without Raava, and that meant that her identity was best kept private. Her appearance was much too recognizable for her, so she'd cut her wolftails and cast off any other remnant of her Water Tribe heritage in hopes of blending in like any other Earth Kingdom refugee. She still got looks from time to time, as if someone were trying to place her, but her predilection for survival reacted quickly and she could vanish into a crowd before anyone could be wholly sure if they'd seen the Avatar or not. So far, it had worked well and even Nabi hadn't seemed to make the connection... as long as no one caught her bending more than one element.

The 'former' Avatar patted herself off just as the small barn door opened and Nabi appeared, a basket over her arm and a pleasant smile on her features. Korra wasn't sure, but she thought that she was in a different skirt than before.

"Hey," she greeted the other girl. "I was just about to come inside."

"Actually, it's better that you didn't. My aunt and uncle are bickering," she smirked wisely and walked past her towards the loft ladder. Korra shrugged and followed.

"They do that a lot?"

"No, just around harvest usually. It's been worse lately, ever since the Earth Queen kicked the bucket. I think they're just scared, you know?" Nabi managed her way up to the top of the loft and looked down to help Korra, but the Water Tribe girl swung herself up easily.

"That's pretty perceptive of you," she pointed out and followed Nabi's steps along the fitted boards to the edge of the loft where a closed door kept them in darkness. Nabi carefully put down the basket and fiddled with a lock, and then gently let the door down to create a platform which looked out on a rather unexpected scene. Korra had been on the ranch for only a few days and hadn't realized that the barn, at this height and on this angle, actually looked out on a soft valley towards the distant Hum Zhir mountains. The view from the ground was dense trees, but from here it was charmingly rustic and the sunset over the hills added a sense of tranquility to Korra's otherwise dreary thoughts. She smiled from the scene to Nabi, who was grinning back at her quite proudly.

"See why I like to eat up here?"

"Definitely," she agreed and took a seat. The other girl opened the basket to reveal a blanket for the spread, and began to pull out carefully prepared boxes of rice, steamed greens, and thinly sliced beef. Smelling each dish that appeared, Korra realized how much effort Nabi must have put into their dinner and she actually blushed a little with embarrassment. She hadn't' meant for the other girl to go so far out of her way.

"Jeez, I feel like I should have helped out with all of this but I'm not much of a cook."

Nabi giggled and handed her a bowl of white rice. "That's okay, I'm a pretty good one. I think about opening a noodle stand in the village, sometimes. Or, I used to before everything got so... tense."

Korra flinched slightly. She knew exactly the tension Nabi was referring to, and her inability to change any of it was just one source of her self-loathing. The girl seemed to notice her sudden discomfort and peered at her.

"What about you, Kira, what do you want to do?"

'Kira', as she had introduced herself, stabbed at her rice with her chopsticks. "I don't know," she answered honestly. "A lot of the time it feels like it's all I can do to keep walking." She'd said it so impromptu and easily that it actually surprised her and she glanced up at the other girl to apologize. Nabi appeared curious, though not upset by Korra's raw honesty.

"Do you have someplace you're walking to?"

Korra shrugged and began to eat, thinking about her response. That same question had hung in her mind for a long while. "I guess you could say I'm looking for something."

"What sort of something?"

"Hopefully, I'll know when I find it." Somber, she studied her food, and then carefully glanced back up at her dinner companion. Nabi was kind towards her, and not knowing _who_ she was meant that she had no need to demand that Korra have some great and cosmic answer. She was only asking out of friendliness, and perhaps care, and it was a relief to Korra to not have to think of her response in terms of being the Avatar. "I got a hurt a while back, and I couldn't walk for a while. So, I really like traveling now. I think I'm just... walking to walk."

Nabi appeared even more surprised, but she didn't pry and for a while they ate in quiet, with only the sounds of the ranch to fill their ears. Eventually the other girl cleared her throat. "You know, the more you talk about it, it sounds like you're walking from something instead of to something."

Korra blinked, and then chuckled. "You _really_ are perceptive."

Nabi laughed a little. "You actually remind me of a story I heard from my grandma Song." Korra looked up at her with an open interest, and she continued. "My grandma grew up during the end of the hundred year war. One day two strangers showed up at her farm: an old man and a young boy. They told her that they were refugees and she fed them and gave them medicine. She told me that she could see how much pain the boy was in, because she knew how much pain she was in. I guess everyone was in pain, in those days. She told me he was much like a bird with a broken wing, and that it's a very good thing to help something which is helpless. But, when she tried to help him, the boy left." She smirked suddenly. "And he took her ostrich horse."

Korra frowned. "That's awful. He robbed her, even though she was helping him?"

Nabi nodded but she was still grinning, much to Korra's confusion. Suddenly, she started to chuckle. "Do you want to know who that boy was?"

Korra shrugged.

"Firelord Zuko."

Korra deadpanned back at her. "What?"

"No, really! He had the scar and everything. She didn't know it was him at the time, she thought he was just another refugee injured by the Fire Nation. This was before the war ended, and he was actually on the run from the Fire Nation army."

Korra was floored. She'd never heard the story of Lord Zuko on the run from the Fire Nation, and she couldn't' imagine the kindly, wise leader of an entire nation stealing a poor girl's ostrich horse. She stammered over her rice, attempting to correlate the two ideas.

"That's... I can't believe Lord Zuko would be such a jerk!"

"Well, if it makes you feel any better, he made up for it. Two years later, after the Republic had been founded, an official from the Firelord came to my grandma's farm with box of gold and a small _herd_ of ostrich horses. That's how my aunt has this ranch today. My grandma used the money to start a big ranch and buy a whole bunch of land." She grinned happily, pinching cooked vegetables between her chopsticks and Korra harrumphed in her throat, looking out at the farm.

"So, Zuko was here?"

"Well, this farmhouse is new. But yes, that's our family legacy. I think it's probably why my aunt wanted to let you stay and work here. It's a family tradition to offer hospitality to travelers in need..." she paused, looking suddenly a bit shyly at Korra. "Especially people who seem to be a little lost."

"I'm not lost," Korra countered with a grim smile. "I just don't know where I'm going."

For some reason, this response tugged a laugh from Nabi and the Avatar gave her a quick glower, before puckishly reaching out to steal some of her rice in retribution. The attack quickly devolved into a competition over who could better defend their food until finally terms were made and both girls finished their bowls in peace. The conversation was allowed to turn around the doings of the farm and whether or not Nabi wanted to stay and work it in the tradition of her family or find something more suited for her. Listening to someone else's troubles was surprisingly cathartic for Korra, and she liked the feeling of being the experienced one with worldly wisdom and advice for once. As they chatted , the sunset through the barn-door faded until it was only a brimming pink above the mountains and finally Nabi, talked out, sighed towards it.

"I'm really glad you decided to work here," she commented abruptly and Korra looked back at her.

"I'm not a Fire Nation prince in disguise, in case you were wondering," she quipped wryly. She hoped that Nabi never realized that she was the Avatar either.

Nabi laughed. "That's not why," she looked down at her crossed knees. "I just like you, I mean. You're easy to talk to and you've seen a lot of stuff and been to a lot of places. You just seem very kind. And..." she trailed softly. "You're really pretty."

That caught Korra's attention. She tilted her head, peering back at Nabi. It was certainly a nice thing of her to say, but it still felt out of place.

"Thanks," she offered, awkwardly. "You're sweet and pretty too." She had never really gotten used to the concept of properly 'accepting and returning compliments'.

Nabi looked back up at her, blushing in the dying light. "You think so?"

She nodded back, as if it were perfectly obvious. "Of course." She was sweet and very pretty, after all, with her petite features and pouting mouth which was turning towards h-

Nabi leaned to land a surprising kiss on Korra's cheek, swift and nervous, and Korra stopped dead in her line of thinking. Nabi paused, a few inches away, and suddenly put her face into her hand.

"Oh, I'm sorry. I thought..." whatever she thought was mumbled incoherently into her palms while Korra kept trying to recover from her shock. Blundering, she reached to pat Nabi's shoulder.

"Hey, it's okay. Don't get upset. It's fine, really."

"No, it's not," she groaned, her voice coming weakly from behind her folded hands. "I don't know what gets into me. My aunt says it's just a phase but I feel so... drawn to you."

"Oh."

'Oh.'

Korra bit her cheek, listening to the girl's confession and trying to sort together the pieces she was hearing. "Me?" She clarified in a thoughtful tone. "Or...girls?"

Nabi dropped her hands and Korra saw that the girl's cheeks had transitioned through several colors of pink. "Girls," she admitted. "But you, especially," she hastily added, then winced at another unfortunate twist of traitorous tongue. "I'm sorry."

Korra's mouth pulled into a sympathetic smile. "There's nothing to be sorry about. You didn't do anything wrong, and believe me when I say that people can't help how they feel." She wavered for a moment while she considered whether to continue. "I was in love with a woman, a long time ago."

Nabi's eyes flickered and then saucered. "...Really? You mean, more than a friend?"

"A lot more," she squirmed, feeling leery of bringing up a woman whom she spent most of her time struggling to not think about. "And she loved me. She was... is... well." In what simple words could she possibly describe Asami or her relationship to her? She shook her head, leaving that task for another day. "The point is, you can't help who you like. Maybe your aunt's right and it's just a phase, but maybe it isn't and that's okay too. It's up to you to figure that out, not your aunt or anyone else.

The girl nodded slowly, a sheepish smile spreading on her cheeks again. "Yeah, okay..." she bit her lip. "I really do like you, you know."

Korra swallowed and it suddenly felt as if the barn-loft draft had grown rather stale. "I like you too."

Nabi's gaze searched hers for a moment, and then fell to the Water Tribe woman's mouth. Hesitant, she drifted slowly closer and Korra allowed her to until she felt the soft press of lips to hers, something she hadn't known in such a very, very long time. It must have been the span of several very rapid heartbeats in which they brushed so faintly against one another, but Korra still felt unprepared when the other girl's lips gradually began to move against hers. Inspired by instinct, she responded in kind and leaned more fully into Nabi's softness.

It was in fact the first time Korra had kissed anyone since she was with Asami, and the gesture felt foreign to her in a surprising way. It had been years since she'd known another body's affection, or really taken note of her own private needs. She'd long ago put all of her focus into healing, then into perfecting her frail body, and then into finding that missing piece of her Avatar self; however in this barn on the outskirts of civilization she was very suddenly reminded that besides being Korra and the Avatar, she was also a woman.

The desire that shocked through her was surely the result of years of neglect, and suddenly she was awake in ways she'd forgotten for too long. Korra's arms gripped around Nabi's frame, pulling her close until their bodies pressed through the fabric of their blouses and the younger girl, inexperienced and excited, made a fragile moan against her mouth. Nabi's lips began to move, making small hot kisses down her chin while Korra's hands gripped at her, remembering old methods. Her fingers wanted flesh and sighs and high pitched moans, while the burning in her center wanted something satisfyingly selfish. Desperate gasps fell between them and Korra realized, in a cool and sudden way, that she could have this girl then and there, in any manner that she wished.

The thought tore at her in two very separate veins.

She wanted Nabi, certainly, but was it _her_ or her lusting body which felt this need? Did she have any right to feel this way at all? Korra barely knew the other girl and as the more experienced person wasn't it her role to take some responsibility in this moment? And besides the ambiguity she suddenly struggled over there was the stark shadow of Asami just at the edges of her yearning mind. The heiress's creamy skin and lavender-perfumed hair, the cool jade of her glare and the rare moments of vulnerability when she looked up through the lace of her lashes at Korra above her. This moment was nothing like those instances with her paramour, and Korra realized that it wasn't her true self that wanted it.

Her hands came up to Nabi's shoulders and with an effort she pushed her back, lips swelling and red from frenzied contact. Nabi, panting, looked back at her in confusion.

"Nabi, I'm leaving tomorrow," she said without thinking. She hadn't planned on staying long at the ranch, but the realization that she had to move on was as sudden as her want for the other girl. Nabi's brows furrowed back at her.

"Wha... you don't have to. Kira, you can stay here as long as you want."

Korra swallowed and shook her head, still holding the other girl at arm's length. "No, I can't. I might not know where I'm going, but I do know that this isn't where I'm supposed to be, and I'm not like Zuko. I'm not going to steal something from you and then disappear into the night."

Nabi's eyes widened and then her features fell, but she nodded slowly. "I guess I'm supposed to be glad you were honest, but I'm not really glad at all."

Korra tilted her head, looking fondly at the other girl. "It doesn't have anything to do with you, okay? I just... I'm not ready. For a lot of things."

The fact that she still caught images of the 'other Korra' in the fringes of the horizon from time to time was proof enough that she wasn't ready.

She withdrew her hands and, obligingly, Nabi nodded again. "I guess you were hurt pretty badly," she muttered after a few quiet moments and Korra grimaced.

"Yeah. In more ways than one."

They sat in this new discomfort for a few minutes more, and then suddenly Nabi let out a sigh which very nearly sounded relieved. "Well, I'm still happy that you came here. I may have not helped you, but you helped me."

Korra gave the other girl her firm, warm grin. "You helped. I promise."

* * *

'Avatar Korra Park' rarely failed to give Asami a wistful chuckle when she saw the proudly displayed stella in Korra's name. Raiko had humiliated and bullied Korra right out of Republic City three years ago, and then when she'd proven yet again how necessary she was to the Republic and the rest of the world he'd thrown up a gaudy statue of the Avatar and renamed a park which she'd rarely ever attended in some attempt to pretend the whole thing never happened. If Korra could see the memorial to her she'd scoff and roll her eyes, and that little fact made Asami smirk whenever her gaze fell on the bronze effigy... thought not on that particular day. That particular day felt as if nothing could make Asami smile.

She'd found herself in the park almost on accident after having left the office, just a few blocks away, and it was her wayward musing that had allowed her steps to meander somewhere green and pleasant. Perhaps it was the brief respite from the hectic downtown turmoil that had drawn her to the park, or maybe it was Korra's firm visage after all, but in either case she looked around herself at the surrounding gardens like a child stirring from a trouble dream. She glanced behind her at the statue, just some yards off, and her brow furrowed at the figure that was such a hollow representation of the person.

Korra hadn't arrived at Air Temple Island like she was scheduled to. The old Team Avatar had reunited and waited on the docks for her father's ship, and Asami had willed herself to quiet her angst at the prospect of finally being reunited with the person whom she'd once loved more than anyone else on earth. Getting over Korra, for the second time, had been on no account easy but after nearly three years apart she had been confident that she was in a place to see Korra not as an ex lover but as a long-time friend. She had even been excited while she waited on the dock with the airbenders and Mako, twisting her hands together in a gesture which she refused to admit was nervousness.

And then the gangplank had fallen and Tonraq disembarked... alone. When he told them that Korra had shipped off for Republic City months ago, Asami's exasperated internal response was simply 'Of course she did'. It made immediate sense to her that Korra would never do even the most simplest thing expected of her, and that obviously included coming home.

Seated in the park, she glared sharply at the statue.

'Can you ever do anything the easy way?' She huffed at her bangs and looked back at her folded hands. She'd been more disappointed than she liked to admit when Korra was a no-show, and more than a little worried about where the Avatar had disappeared to, but for now her thoughts were concerned with a person a little closer to home.

Asami had gone to visit her father, a venture she now knew to have been a total mistake.

Hiroshi had been so alarmingly wan as he shuffled the steel chair from the table in the prisoners' visiting chamber, and Asami wasn't sure what it was that alarmed her more: how much he had changed or how much he hadn't. His voice was still a low timber, soothing and calm. His green eyes still glowed with so much warmth for her sake, and his agile fingers fluttered softly on the stack of unopened letters she shoved back at him.

 _"I don't want to ever hear from you again."_

Asami, sitting in the park, shut back the emotion she felt welling in her eyes.

It wasn't fair. It had been almost four years, but it still felt as if she'd only just lost her father. Seeing him dressed primly and clean in his state-provided jumpsuit had done nothing to quell the wound in her heart for him and now she felt it just as keenly as she had those years ago. More than anything and worse of all, she was now sure that she truly missed him.

The engineer swallowed and opened her eyes, and it seemed fate that her gaze fell at once on a table some yards away where a young father and his daughter played a game of pai sho in an image which so starkly reflected her own childhood that it stung sweetly in her heart. Hiroshi had taught her that exact game, when it was only the two of them in all the world. She remembered those days, when all the universe seemed to shine from her father's smile and in the light of it she was loved and safe. That was gone, but the memory of it somehow made her glad and then Asami realized that she wasn't ready for it to be nothing but a memory.

She let out a soft breath. She wanted that light in her life again, and Hiroshi wanted to provide it. It was a risk, but after being alone for so long she was beginning to think that it may finally be worth the attempt. Her jade gaze swept back up towards the image of Korra. If she could accept Hiroshi back into her life, then she could let go of her bitterness towards Korra as well, right?

The thought gave her a small, barely perceptible sense of peace but unbeknownst to Asami, that seed in her heart would be able to gently grow.

* * *

 _Author's Note: I know that it may feel a little odd to see the characters involved with other people, but I could not imagine Asami as a lonesome spinster wandering a widows walk. She's a very vivacious character and I doubt she would have become a recluse. Korra, on the other hand, had a lot to focus on during the gap and I think she would have put her entire attention into healing and self improvement so that both of these scenarios made the most sense to me._

 _Next chapter, we'll see what happens after three years apart..._


	4. Chapter 3

The rotary on Asami Sato's desk chimed shrilly and the young industrial magnate put down her fountain pen to click the receiver in a hasty motion. She was swamped that particular afternoon with the latest procedure documents and she was starting to really consider hiring a reader. There simply had to be a better way to digest so much information in such small frames of time. Perhaps that problem would be what she'd puzzle over that night when waited to fall asleep...

"Miss Sato, there's a call on line two for you," her secretary explained in a rather distinct tone.

"I'll call back," she answered immediately, not looking up from her spot among a stack of documentation.

"All right... but would it make a difference if I told you it was Avatar Korra?"

Asami blinked and looked at the speakerbox.

Korra was on the phone? Now?

"...Yes, actually," she mumbled softly and then cleared her throat. She checked a gesture to straighten her hair, and her fingers hovered a moment over the handset. She hadn't spoken to Korra in years, (the young woman was still missing as far as she was aware) and out of the clear blue she was on the damn phone for her. Asami wet her lips again and lifted the receiver.

"Hello?"

"H-hey!" The voice on the other end greeted her, and Asami could almost feel Korra's nervous energy through the phone line.

"Hi," she chuckled, just as anxious. The line was quiet a moment while two heartbeats struggled for a comment. "Where are you calling from?" Asami asked pointedly.

"Air Temple Island. It's a long story, but I just got in this afternoon."

Asami tried to not feel so warmed at the thought that Korra's first inclination was to call her. "Oh, that's great to hear. I'm glad you're safe." And she was, in fact. It wasn't until that precise moment that she was aware of just how worried she'd been ever since she learned that Korra had been awol for months. And Spirits, did it feel good to just hear that voice?

"Safe? Where did you think I was, some monster pit?"

"Honestly?"

She heard Korra laugh. "Yeah, okay I guess there's a precedent for that... and it's honestly not too far off. I've been to a couple of interesting places."

"I think I can imagine..." she leaned back into her chair, looking toward the window and the afternoon clouds that drifted above the cityscape. "Do you want to tell me about it?"

"Definitely. Do you think it would it be okay if it were in person?"

Asami grinned despite herself. "Of course. I'd love to see you." It was an honest declaration, one which made the voice on the other end hesitate.

"I'd love to see you too," the Avatar stated and Asami bit her lip. "When's good for you? You gotta be pretty busy, building a city and all."

She snorted back a laugh. "It's just some industrial design contracts... and I'm free tomorrow for lunch." She swallowed, her nervousness suddenly expanding in her throat and before she could help herself she blurted, "I can invite Mako. I know he wants to see you too."

Meeting Korra by herself was an intimidating prospect, but for some reason the thought of having Mako as a buffer between them made the experiment feel more plausible. And, the firebender really did want to see Korra again. The Avatar's friends had been lonesome without her.

"Oh, that'd be great." Was it her imagination, or was Korra disappointed?

"Meet me at the Four Elements hotel in uptown at noon, I'll handle everything else."

Korra's hard chuckle filled the headset. "Yeah, you usually do. I'll see you then."

The engineer truly couldn't help her nonsensical smile. "See you then."

She hung up the receiver and stared at the device in silence for several moments, simply listening to the fluttering in her chest. Korra was actually back, and she was actually going to see her. How that would go, or what she would manage to say was something she fully intended to put careful consideration to but for that moment she could scarcely believe her excitement.

* * *

The Four Elements Hotel was the sort of grand slice of Republic City which Korra had not missed. It was a beautiful construction of marble foyers, winding mahogany staircases and crystalline chandeliers in the bold, dramatic style of the Republic City Deco but she had long ago ceased to be impressed by the elegance of wealth. Spending a week in a muggy swamp cave with a bitter old crone of an earthbending master had that sort of affect on a person.

Korra's adventure had taken a grim turn after her retreat from the Buk Ranch. The haunting of the 'Other Korra' only intensified its threat while her feet turned into the eastern sun and she'd finally grown fed up with the role of being the hunted. She'd attempted to pursue the Other instead and only wound up half-beaten to a pulp in the great Foggy Swamp as a result. There, she'd made a discovery almost as unsettling as the menacing mirage of herself: Toph Beifong, in the living flesh.

The legendary mother of the metalbending had agreed to help mold her into fighting shape again, however it was a task easier said than done. Korra had had masters of many styles and many different levels of severity and even so she was unprepared for the sort caustic contempt which Toph came at her with. The result had been pain and a lot of it, but in ways she hadn't expected. Whereas master Katara had sought to gently guide Korra through her trauma, Toph forced her accept it for what it was and in so doing she had managed to actually let go of it. That was when she was able to finally bend the last deep-rooted traces of poison out of her body and that was when she was able to enter into the Avatar state at long last.

Korra had thought that reconnecting with Raava would be the last piece in her broken mosaic but when she'd left the swamp to deal with the growing unrest in the Earth Kingdom, she was shocked by her own lingering weakness. Somehow, there was still a part of her old strength which was absent and until Korra could figure out what it was she missed she wasn't much help to the world or Zaofu especially, even as much as she wanted to be. The metalbending city fell to the warlord Kuvira without a shot fired, and Korra retreated to Republic City.

However, that was not what the Avatar wanted to focus on for the time being.

Korra entered past the hotel bellhop, who gave her a confused once-over, and looked around herself with a twinge of anxiety and not because of her surroundings. Asami was here, somewhere, and Korra thought her stomach could very well slither out of her at this rate.

She took a breath and set her shoulders, refusing to be nervous. Why should she be? Their relationship had ended years ago, they had both moved on by now and this was going to be a very welcome meal between very old friends. She had nothing to be apprehensive about, though her affirmation of that did not seem to translate well to her stomach.

Korra stepped down a side hall which she knew was supposed to lead to the restaurant, casting her gaze about for her friends but when it landed on a well-dressed woman seated on a raised bench and calmly flicking through a magazine, any of her faux confidence melted into her fur-lined boots.

For a moment she said nothing, more out of reticent surprise than a willful intention. Had her memory failed her, or had the woman actually grown more lovely? And what on earth was she supposed to do now? Well, a greeting of some sort would probably be good way to start. That's what civilized people did, right?

"Uh, I hope you haven't been waiting too long..." she cleared her throat, and then Asami's jade eyes lifted to hers in a moment so long-awaited that it felt surreal.

"Just for the past few years," Asami grinned and rose to embrace her. The collection of half seconds in which the engineer moved towards her were somehow stretched by tense heartstrings, enough so that she could almost take in every nuance of Asami's dress and hair and smile as she put her arms so easily around her. The smell of high-end perfumes, mingled with metal and something which was distinctly Asami herself, hit Korra fully and then memories she had long ago mastered came flooding through her mind's eye: Asami grinning down at her from where she hung on the Cabbage Corp airship; Asami watching her pull on her Equalist gas mask; Their breaths hanging close in a courtroom clerks' office; Asami as she undressed for her in the lamplight; Asami's lips pressed in a midnight kiss-

The heiress withdrew and Korra grit her teeth, swallowing back the almost overwhelming depth of emotion brought to surface by just her scent.

"It's so good to see you," she was saying and Korra nodded distractedly.

"It's good to see you too." She hoped her voice sounded steady.

Asami smirked at her. "I really like what you did with your hair. It suits you."

Blushing, she reached up to touch her shorn locks. When Korra had taken a dagger to her wolftails months ago it hadn't exactly been an endeavor towards style. Pema had kindly offered to shape it some that morning however, and Korra had to wonder if it was obvious how eager she was to impress the heir of Future Industries. Her new Water Tribe tunic and trousers were of a less traditional cut as well, and she rather liked the half-arm gloves that had been dug up for her.

"Thanks. You're looking as stylish as ever," she attempted to trade back the compliment and Asami laughed. There was something so enviably calm about the other woman while Korra still felt blindsided by her wistfulness.

She nodded towards the restaurant, gesturing Korra to join her. "I sent Mako to get us a table. Come on," and they stepped in time down the hall but the moment they fell silent there grew a fresh wave of awkward distance between them. With pleasantries and greetings exchanged, she suddenly didn't know what to ask and what not to. She wanted to jump into an immediate line of questioning but her tongue felt tied around a knot of confusion and excitement, caused partially by the simple fact that Asami was still so damn gorgeous.

She was actually beginning to look forward to seeing Mako, just so that she'd be able to focus on something other than the woman at her side. Fortunately, or not, she was about to have a lot of things to distract her from the churning in her chest which the heiress caused.

* * *

Prince Wu wasn't exactly what Korra had been expecting in the future Earth King but that didn't mean she wished the skinny intended any ill-will. On the contrary, with all of the issue that Kuvira had been causing in the Earth Kingdom, Korra thought that establishing a less aggressive monarch would help to quiet the unrest to the East. So, when the young prince went suddenly missing while Mako was busy scowling and she and Asami were practicing "not talking", she was first in line to bring him back from enemy hands. If nothing else, she could at least say that the race for Wu's life had severed any remaining threads of uncomfortable edginess left between her and her friends. It was hard to remain angry when you were all fighting for your lives atop a racing train.

Once they had Wu safely back in Mako's custody and the detective was on his way to deal with the necessary paperwork (being a Republic City officer meant no end in redtape) Korra found herself suddenly alone at the train station with Asami, and she wasn't at all clear on how or what to do next. She stole a surreptitious glance at the engineer to gauge if she were equally unsure but Asami had already turned towards the parking lot and her waiting car and, not seeing another option, Korra quickly moved to step in time. It seemed strange to be strolling side-by-side in the Republic City afternoon in that it didn't really seem that strange at all. Something about Asami's presence was comfortably familiar.

Well, now at least. Once they had gotten over their initial enthusiasm of seeing one another, lunch took a very sudden and awkward turn. Asami had snapped at Korra when the Avatar made a comment in regards to her father and Korra realized that they were not going to be picking up right where they had left off after all. Still, maybe Asami just needed some time to come around. Korra decided that she could always give her some space for the time being and ring her up in a few more days for a less dramatic outing.

"Where do you want to go now?" Asami asked, turning to look at her as she unlocked the driver-side of her sportster. The machine was all smooth, bowed lines and sat a bit lower to the ground than Asami's last cars, but she still drove it as if it were a sentient beast.

"Oh," Korra, hands in her pockets and brooding, blinked back with her surprise. "I don't know..." she scratched at the base of her neckline. "I'm kind of out of the loop these days," she joked.

Asami just smiled back at her. "You didn't miss too much. ProBending has been pretty dull since the Fire Ferrets were sold and I haven't seen any good movers in a while." She opened the door to get in and, apparently invited, Korra slipped into the passenger seat. The arrangement was gratifyingly normal.

"Well, maybe we could check ou-" she was interrupted by a tight groan from her midriff and she clasped a hand over her stomach, embarrassed. They had had their lunch spoiled with the royal kidnapping, after all.

Asami gave her a surprised look and then chuckled. "Lunch was sort of a bust. What about an early dinner?"

"Actually..." Korra glanced in the direction of the bay in the distance and then back at Asami. "Want to come to the Island?" It was a very old habit of theirs, but Korra was oddly in the mood for the routines she used to love so. To her relief, Asami's lips pulled into a slow, even smile and she nodded.

"Absolutely."


	5. Chapter 4

"And then someone threw all of our food into the river," Ikki complained loudly, giving her younger brother a dramatic glower, which Meelo stoutly ignored by crossing his arms.

"There are no sweet buns on a mission," he exclaimed and then pointed at his father. "Right, dad?"

Tenzin, seated at the head of the low table, sighed and shuffled the vegetables in his bowl. "There's no tenant against sweet buns, Meelo. However, it's also good to know how to live off the land in case you find yourself in a position without access to proper food."

Korra, seated between Jinora and Asami, peered suspiciously from one airbender kid to the other. She really should not have been surprised to find that the airbender family was as vocal as ever, or that they had no intention of behaving themselves in front of Korra's guest. At least Asami appeared equally unsurprised, and partially intrigued. A meal on Air Temple Island was not dissimilar from having dinner and a show.

Meelo appeared to have taken his father's response as approval of his method, while Ikki adamantly disagreed.

"It was a waste of perfectly good food, Meelo."

"Aw, shucks," he waved away her criticism.

"Pema probably put a lot of work into making all of that food for you guys," the Avatar mildly joined in, pecking at her rice bowl, which finally got a look of contrition from the young airbender. His lips twisted side-to-side and he looked guiltily at his mother, who shrugged and nodded.

"Hrm... I guess I didn't think about that."

"Yeah, no kidding," Ikki grumbled.

"Well," Pema stood and collected her empty bowls. "What matters is that all the kids made it home safe," she gestured towards Korra and Asami. "Including you two."

Korra felt herself blush at being so easily considered 'one of the kids', and she looked over to find that Asami was a bit pink as well. The other woman gave her a secret, embarrassed smile which Korra shared before Asami shyly dropped her gaze and cleared her throat.

"I'll help with the dishes, Pema," she announced as she stood to gather the emptied plates on her end of the table.

"Me too," Meelo bent a ball of air beneath his ankles to hop upright, obviously still a bit guilty over disregarding his mother's hard work and, not to be outdone, the sisters both got up as well.

"I better make sure Meelo doesn't break something," Jinora grumbled and Ikki nodded along.

"Well, if everyone's going to do the dishes then I'm going to sit here with my tea," Pema chuckled. Tenzin, who was in charge of overseeing little Rohan's meal, nodded in agreement.

"And I am going to clean this very messy eater," he scowled affectionately at his youngest child, who was vainly attempting to rub the peanut sauce off his cheeks. Everyone stood from the table to attend to their task, leaving a very satisfied Pema and a suddenly confused Korra at the table alone. The Avatar twisted to look after the others who filed into the kitchen, feeling as if she was supposed to be doing something helpful as well. She hoped fervently that they weren't all politely treating her like an invalid still.

"I'm so glad to have you back, Korra," Pema broke her brooding and the Avatar lifted her attention to the older woman.

"Oh, thanks. I'm really glad to be back too." Her smile moved from Pema to her teacup and she rolled the empty the ceramic in her fingers, feeling the design of it. The Temple felt like her home away from home, and every detail was a memory she now wanted to catalogue away for the next time she was gone. She reached for the teapot to pour herself a cup.

Pema smiled a little at her, and then shifted her gaze towards the doorway of the kitchen. "It's also nice to see Asami. She hasn't been by that much lately. I guess she's really busy with work."

Korra actually hadn't realized that Asami visited the island without her, but it made sense. The engineer had formed her own relationship with the airbenders, and it was unexpected but nice to know that she had had that friendship while Korra had been absent. Pema looked back at Korra, and the corner of her mouth was lifted in a particularly wry expression.

"She gets more pretty every time I see her. Don't you think?"

Korra nearly choked on her tea. "I... hadn't really noticed," she sputtered.

Pema shrugged a little. "She's such a sweet girl, and very good with the kids; especially Jinora and Ikki. I think that it's good for them to have a nonbender to look up to," she took a slow sip of her tea. "And you two look to be getting along well."

Korra knew she was starting to blush, and found herself suddenly very curious as to where this conversation about the impeccable Asami Sato was heading. "Yeah, we are..." she agreed warily.

"That's good. You know, she really doesn't come by enough. I think I'll ask her to stay the night," she decided and looked to the kitchen door while Korra's eyebrows shot upright. "Asami!" She called. Korra hazarded an attempt to stop Pema with a half-raised gesture, suddenly anxious and not sure of the reason why, but Asami's top-half appeared in the doorway in a moment and Korra quickly threw her hands back into her lap.

"Did you need something, Pema?" The engineer asked.

"No, we're fine. But it's getting late, why don't you stay the night? You can sleep in your usual room, if you want."

"Oh," Asami appeared slightly surprised by the invitation, but then she shrugged. "Sure, that'd be great."

"Good," she nodded and Asami returned to the kitchen, while Korra tried to not glare outright at Pema. Something about the acolyte's self-satisfied smirking as she gazed calmly into her teacup made Korra think that the invitation was less innocent than Pema's tone pretended.

* * *

Korra couldn't sleep. She tossed from one pinched position into another but there was no rest to be had on the flat board of her cot and none to be found within the confines of her ever-churning mind. Everything felt so bizarre since her return to Republic City, and the strangeness of her reality in comparison to her memories created an anxious rift she did not entirely understand. The city was at risk of conflict, but it was nothing which the police (including Mako) was unable to check. Her friends in the Air Nation had been hard at work establishing peace in the Earth Kingdom, and her efforts to defend Zaofu had been as fruitless as if she'd never left the Swamp.

The Avatar sighed and sat up, rolling the kinks from her shoulders. She wasn't entirely sure what she had expected when she came back to Republic City, but this sense of unfulfillment wasn't part of her plan.

A few moments more of debate saw her out of her bed and into her moccasins, then she quietly opened the screen door and looked into the blackness of the dormitory hall. Unintentionally, her gaze fell down the end towards Asami's door, which appeared closed from her vantage. She remembered, with almost alarming clarity, standing just where she was now and watching the heiress slip into her room for the night so many years ago. It wasn't only the image of a fair-skinned beauty smirking at her through the shadows, but the tense hold such small gestures once had around her heart which kneaded at her restless mind. Wistfully she recalled that anxious sensation now, and it almost hurt.

For a heart's beat she considered moving down the hall towards that silent ingress to a warmer past but her lip pressed between her teeth and she turned to go into the living lounge instead, putting Asami's memory at her back.

Their evening had been entertaining, spent in the pleasant companionship of the airbenders while they played board games and talked about the many, many things which Korra had fallen behind on during her time away. The absence of Bolin and Mako was tangible, but it didn't keep them from their fun or Korra from feeling the atmosphere of friendship she'd once treasured so much. The kids were as high-energy and talkative as ever, if not more-so, and their constant movement and chattering had kept Korra just distracted enough to not focus on the way Asami tossed her hair over her shoulder or laughed so musically.

When they had all gone off to their designated rooms and said their goodnights there had been a brief, stretched moment of averted gazes but it had been severed by Asami's astute social graces and polite goodnights were exchanged with barely a stumble. All in all, it had been a good day for Korra and she knew she should have been happy with that... but if she was honest with herself she wasn't that happy at all. Once, she'd had something in her stomach which absolute seethed for Asami, and now that she was ba-

The Water Tribe woman's thoughts curtailed as she walked around the corner of the lounge and saw a young woman, dark hair drifting down her chest, reclined into the sofa with a book open in her lap. Jade eyes startled up at her and for a moment the two were suspended silently in the effluvium of their surprise.

"Oh," Korra blinked. "You're up?"

"Yeah," the engineer lifted a shoulder and her lips curled shyly. "You know how I am about sleeping."

Korra grinned. "Yeah, actually," she scratched back through her hair and walked a bit further into the room. "I do. You still do the night owl thing?"

The other woman shrugged again. "I guess so. I usually get my best ideas at night but..." she lifted up her book to show Korra. It was a classic Air Nomad poem which Korra had long neglected, much to Tenzin's exasperation. "I guess I wasn't feeling very creative."

Korra debated, shifting unconsciously on her heels. "Isn't that the Yu'Bigad? Tenzin's been trying to get me to read it for forever. Is it any good?"

"It's... a little dry," she smiled and Korra matched her expression.

"So that's why Tenzin likes it."

They both giggled, which put Korra more at ease and her fidgeting quieted.

"What about you?" Asami inquired, tilting her head. "Are you about to start doing laps?"

"Maybe," she could feel how goofy her smile had become. "I guess I feel kind of restless. I think I'll go for a walk..." the sentence hung in the air and Korra realized that she hadn't finished it in one direction or another. She then made her decision quite instinctually. "Want to come with?"

"Sure," Asami closed the book and stood without hesitation, her night gown swishing quietly about her ankles.

Korra waited for her and then side by side, they walked into the cool, starlit eve of the island; without a word between them they began towards one of the winding meditation paths. Asami walked just at Korra's pace, neither in front or behind, and for a small while they were mutually contemplative in the oddness of their evening.

Asami was the first to break the quiet.

"It must feel pretty weird to be here."

"What do you mean?"

"Well, you were off traveling for a while. That must have been pretty different, compared to the island."

"Oh, yeah," she shrugged. "It was. But Air Temple Island is a lot different from the Compound. And the Compound is a lot different than the Chieftain's Palace. I guess I got used to finding something special about where I am. I mean, I stayed at this farm in the Earth Kingdom for a week and when I first got there I thought it was just a farm, but from the barn loft you could see this canyon and these mountains and it was really something. If I had just walked on by I might not have seen just how beautiful a place it was. The Swamp was that way too. We climbed up the roots and saw the sunset over the trees and it was pretty amazing. I guess Tenzin would tell me there's a lesson in that."

"Probably," she agreed while the path turned downhill. She was a quite for a few seconds more, obviously in thought. "What do you think is beautiful in Republic City?"

"Hmm," Korra considered. "The night, I guess. That's my favorite part. I used to hate sitting out here and seeing the city at a distance, like it was a gem on a pedestal I wasn't allowed to touch." She gestured across the bay which they meandered towards and, true to description, the rest of Republic City was dazzling just at the edge of the inky water. "But now, it's more like I can really see just how pretty it is when I stand back and look at the whole thing." She frowned softly, surprising herself with her description. Asami did always seem to draw words from her, however. She looked up at her companion. "What about you?"

"I don't know. I feel like I'm living in the gem most of the time, I guess. And, ever since I started working for those city projects I feel like I see the inside of it too. I know all the rivets and facets. I think that I'm getting bored of it now."

"Really? Do you want to leave?" Korra wasn't sure if that was a good or bad possibility.

"...Yes and no." She scritched into her hair as she thought aloud, moving it out of her face and into the breeze. "I really liked when we used to travel all the time, but I also felt like I needed to come back here so I could look after the company. I made a lot of changes and hired a lot of really smart people, and now that it's finally starting to settle the way that I want I feel like I could start to branch out more. I was going to start looking at opening up that office in Zaofu but Kuvira sort of put an end to that."

Korra grimaced guiltily. "Yeah..."

"But, there's Capital City to look at too," she quickly added, perhaps trying to save Korra's feelings. "They have a really prestigious university there and it may be a good place to set up a research lab."

"Heh," Korra chuckled and looked back out at the water as they walked. "That's one thing that hasn't changed about you, Asami. You're always finding a way to make something work."

"I guess that's true," she agreed loftily. "Maybe that's one thing my dad taught me." She paused a moment. "What has changed about me?"

"I don't really know," she answered, slipping into an old sense of comfort while they were pulled subconsciously towards the dock. "It's kind of hard to put my finger on. Something in the way you move." Korra answered almost offhandedly but felt herself color the moment it was out of her mouth. She didn't mean to imply how closely she watched Asami move. The engineer only faltered for a moment however.

"Well, you've changed. I can tell that right off."

"Yeah, I cut my hair," she quipped cheekily and won a narrow glance which she strangely enjoyed.

"That's not what I meant, smartass. You're more observant. You listen. You look around you. You're less tense."

"Tense?"

"Yeah. Like, when you were younger you were usually pretty quick to a fight. But now, I don't know. You seem more relaxed in your own skin."

The dock groaned some under their feet as they strode across it, and the fresh smell of the bay rose to meet Korra starkly.

"I don't know about that, but I did learn a lot about myself when I was healing. After I got hurt it would feel like my body and mind were separated, and then I couldn't find my Avatar state and Raava. It was like being in three separate pieces... but then one day Katara forced me to forget about that and to just think about my toe. I guess that sounds really strange, but it was a big moment for me. It was the first time I started to feel like me and my body were connecting again and when my toe finally moved... it was fantastic. Maybe having to rebuild my body made me appreciate it more. Maybe after everything with the Red Lotus and Unulaq, some of the smaller stuff just feels... small," her voice had grown more quiet as she revealed such inner workings, but she glanced up in sudden surprise, apologetic. Their discussion had somehow brought them to the edge of the dock and there was now nowhere left for them to wander. "Wow, I'm really rambling now."

"I like it. But, I always liked your rambling," Asami shrugged, pulling her usual barrette from her thick tresses to re-adjust in the bay wind. Korra felt herself flushing to her ears as she looked back down at her boots, and then a soft 'plop' and a small unhappy gasp from Asami pulled her gaze back up.

"Oh," Asami mourned gently, looking from her empty hand to the ripples in the water below them. "Damnit."

Korra followed her gaze at the water, then shrugged and in a simple motion she dove in a clean arch into the bay. Above her, she could hear a strangled 'Korra!' from the dock but she was rapidly rippling to the bottom of the quay, which was black as pitch in that late hour. Suspended in her element, hair flowing freely in the current, Korra looked one way and another only to realize that the only way she'd find the comb was with a light, and another idea occurred to her. She brought her fists together and the cool glow of the Avatar spirit hummed in her limbs and burst from her eyes. She looked around herself again and within moments the glitter of bronze and green jewels lit up among the dull darkness of the rocks. Grinning, Korra snatched the comb and turned to bend herself to the surface again but managed to remember that Asami found her Avatar spirit a little overwhelming just before she broke through the waves.

A little over a minute had passed before Korra burst from the water, tossing her wet locks and grinning boldly.

"Lose something?" She held up the barrette to catch the moonlight and Asami, who was standing with her arms wrapped around herself, laughed.

"I should have known. You really didn't have to do that."

Korra treaded water, looking in some minor awe at the pale image of Asami's throat and glittering facade arching from the warmth of her nightgown. She shrugged and grinned harder suddenly. "Just part of my Avatar duties. You going to come get it?"

Asami tilted her chin to the side. "You saved my barrette but now I have to come in to get it from you? That kind of defeats the purpose, don't you think?"

In response, Korra huffed in a clear spray of water and backflipped back into the depths. When she re-appeared she could have sworn that something unexpected flickered in Asami's stare. Korra gestured her chin towards the waves, suggestively, but Asami made a sardonic shake of her head.

"What's wrong, heiresses don't swim?"

"Not in the city bay past midnight, no."

"I'm the Avatar," she scoffed. "It's not like something is going to get you."

"You being the Avatar usually means that something does try to get me; and it's cold and I don't have anything to change into."

Korra laughed. "I'm also a waterbender, you know. Drying off isn't too hard."

"Until you try to dry off my hair," she riposted and Korra blushed, remembering that particular faux pas.

"Okay, okay, but I never knew Asami Sato to turn down a challenge."

That got the response she wanted. Asami's eyes narrowed at her. " And exactly what challenge is that?"

"Well..." Korra thought through her options quickly, eager to play a game but hesitant to push Asami's ire. "I figure it's my comb until you come and get it from me."

"That's not much of a challenge, since you are a waterbender," she remarked but before Korra could promise to not use her waterbending, Asami reached for and began to open the ties of her gown. A lithe, soft body peaked from the crimson silk of her high-cut night slip and then Asami shot Korra a half-genuine glare. "You really are a pain, you know that?"

She lifted her hands and dove into the bay while Korra wondered wildly if her heart was going to beat this hard for the rest of the evening. Asami reappeared from the star-kissed water and took a stroke towards Korra. "Give me that," she ordered and Korra half-yelped before diving in the opposite direction.

* * *

She wasn't positive how long they had raced for, but Korra was officially spent. She lay on her back atop the weathered dock, her clothes laid out to dry in the night air beside her and her head cushioned by the dark brown of her hair. Asami was, at least outwardly, equally tired as she lay in the space beside her, breathing deeply. Korra gave the other woman furtive glances from time to time to see if she'd fallen asleep but Asami continued to stare quietly at the glittering canopy which the night afforded, a small smile on her lips. She looked at peace in her contemplative way and, watching her from the corners of her vision, Korra felt slightly at peace as well.

"So, Toph is more grouchy than Lin?" Asami asked abruptly and Korra twisted some to look at her.

"Way more grouchy. She lives in a cave and eats swamp fish."

Asami laughed. "That's a recipe for grouchiness if I ever heard of one."

Korra sat up on her elbow. "She spent an entire afternoon throwing mud at me. I kept trying to dodge and bend at her and she just wiped the floor with me. With swamp mud. She's like a hundred years old!"

Asami laughed more and Korra fake-frowned. "It's not funny, she's a damn mudbender. Have you ever been slapped in the face with a primordial oozing mudpie? It's the most smelly, insulting thing that ever happened to me and that includes being put in a straight jacket."

She smiled endearingly at her, causing a brief hazing in Korra's higher thought processing. "The great Avatar, beaten up by an old woman in a swamp."

"She's not an old woman, she's the old woman! Foot leaches and all."

"Oh," Asami cringed. "That's disgusting."

"Toph's kind of the most disgusting person I've ever met," Korra laughed. "But you can really see where Lin gets her 'no nonsense' from. She sees through all the crap and tells it straight."

"What did she tell you?"

Korra considered for a moment. "She said that I'm still fighting old battles, and that I need to learn how to let things go..." she grew quiet, and found her thoughts drifting quickly from old foes like Amon and the Red Lotus and landing on much closer, sweeter memories. "But, I guess there's some things I don't want to let go."

She found Asami's gaze again and felt held there by a mutual silence as two minds ruminated on the same unspoken wish, and then Asami very calmly cleared her throat.

"I should go to sleep," she stated without inflection or room for misinterpretation, and Korra found that she'd been holding her breath for some unrealized reason.

"Yeah. Me too."

She clambered quickly to her feet, using the motion to cover her blush, and piled up her clothes while Asami assembled herself in a much more ladylike manner. The night had a very abrupt tactile quality to it, as if she only just now was aware of being on the island past midnight with the wind on her prickling flesh. It felt as if she'd been someplace else these past hours. Her fingers scratched back through her shorn hair while she struggled to think of what she should say next, but in a familiar way Asami finished her thought for her.

"This was really nice. I'm glad you're home."

Home. Was she really?

"Me too," she yawned through her grin.

* * *

Balancing a stack of dirtied breakfast bowls, Korra side-stepped into the kitchen with a smirking Asami at her heels. The engineer had a stack of chopsticks and ceramicwear in her hands and she plopped the mess into the waiting suds.

"You really sold your cutter for a sack of rice and a hundred yuan? Korra, that boat must have been worth three times that, at least."

The Water Tribe woman scoffed and shrugged. "It's not like I was trying to make a profit off of it. I just needed some rice and enough to get me the rest of the way to the North Pole."

Asami just shook her head and started to roll up the sleeves of her blouse. "You're a lot of things, Korra, but business may not be your strong-suit."

"Well, then I guess its a good thing you're around to handle that stuff instead," Korra smarted back at her, only to immediately regret her thoughtless mouth. Asami appeared to have noted the implication as well and shot her curious look, but the phone ringing was just the distraction Korra needed to throw her dishes loudly into the wash basin and start to diligently scrub.

"And anyway, I just needed to get rid of the thi-"

"Asami," Tenzin appeared at the doorway. "A mister Yaolin Mu is on the wire for you."

Korra scowled a bit, thinking the name was familiar while Asami made a scathing roll of her eyes.

"How did he find me?" She muttered, much to Korra's further confusion, and then strolled after Tenzin towards where the phone resided in the sitting room. Korra told herself to keep doing the dishes, as she promised Pema she would, but somehow the brush and plate seemed to slip from her fingers and she found herself standing just outside of the sitting room, ear facing the open doorway.

"I really don't appreciate it," Asami was saying into the receiver, but after a brief pause she chuckled. "Yeah, very charming, but there's a fine line between persistence and being a nuisance." Korra nodded in agreement from the other side of the wall. "That's not an emergency," Asami was insisting but that same hint of amuse still masked her tone, much to Korra's growing agitation. "That's a social obligation. I really don't think I'll have the time. Why can't you play doubles with Kiki?" Another long pause and a soft sigh. "Compliments aren't going to get you anywhere, but good try. I'll let you know. All right, bye."

Realizing how close she was to being discovered eavesdropping, Korra grimaced and hastily rushed back into the kitchen as if she had been busily scrubbing the entire time. Asami appeared at the wash basin beside her and stuck her hands into the suds.

"Is that a new hobby of yours?" She asked after a minute, gaze focused on the dishes.

"Um, what do you mean?"

"Listening to telephone conversations."

Korra reddened. She didn't know where the impulse to spy on Asami had come from, it was just so sudden and hard for her to resist. "Sorry. I was just surprised that people call you here."

"They don't usually," she responded in a low tone. "Yaolin is just resourceful."

Korra couldn't seem to stop the blood rushing into her face. "So, who'se Yaolin anyway?"

"A friend, now. We were dating for a little while but he wasn't exactly reliable."

A ball of lead which had been teetering someplace in Korra's midriff ever since the call came plummeted quite suddenly into the depths of her stomach. She didn't know if she was angry, startled, or hurt but it was likely the combination of all three that made her so dubiously ill.

"So," her voice was dry as she pretended to still be scrubbing. "You're dating?"

Asami gave up all pretense of dish-washing, hands hovering on the sink. "You know, this conversation seems very familiar... and I think last time I reminded you that breaking up wasn't my decision."

And there it was, the first time they had verbally acknowledged their relationship or its end. Now that it had finally been broached, it was as if a floodgate had been opened at the hinge and what may have been held at bay came quite suddenly rushing to the forefront of the conversation.

"Well it wasn't really mine either," Korra shot back, dropping the pan into the sink. "It's not like I wanted to break up."

"Then why did you write me that letter?"

"I was in pain," she exclaimed, defensively. "I thought it was what was best for you."

"Best for me? You broke my heart because it was what was best for me? That's bullshit, Korra. It was what was best for you."

Korra blinked back at her, stunned. "Wh... That's not fair."

"Really?" She crossed her arms, waiting.

"Yeah, Asami. You have no idea what I was dealing with, and I wasn't going to drag you down to where I was going."

"I would have gone with you!" She insisted, voice very nearly breaking.

"I know that!" Korra paused, swallowing. She had known this was coming, it simply had to be, but this wasn't the way she wanted to have the conversation. "That's why I had to cut you loose, so you would live your own life."

Asami stared back at her in the taut silence, and then a soft sneezing noise could be heard from outside the kitchen curtain. Korra cut her gaze in the direction of the doorway and then twisted her hands forward. A burst of cyclone shot across the room and impacted something on the other side of the drape, which, judging by the surprised yelp, was in fact the airbender kids piled atop one another.

"Ow!" Ikki cried and Korra rolled her eyes, hands on her hips.

"Ikki..."

"Scatter!" Meelo shouted and three pairs of footsteps went pattering down the hallways.

Huffing with indignation, Korra looked back at Asami, who was sighing back at her... and then abruptly the engineer chuckled. Watching the other woman's expression break out into such relief, Korra felt laughter bubble in her stomach as well and then she was chuckling along with her. Asami started to laugh harder and the ludicrousness of their situation seemed only to compound. Their awkwardness, their fighting, their residual resentment melted like so many shards of brittle hail from their shoulders and Korra bent over double, holding her sides as she laughed for no apparent reason or cause.

She imagined the terrified look on the kids' faces as they took off running and found a fresh wave of giggles, encouraged by Asami sitting suddenly on the floor to laugh into her hands. The two sat that way, faces bright and tears glittering in their eyes while their spell passed and faded to leave them both oddly tired and strangely at ease. Finally, Korra cleared her throat and looked across the tiles at the woman smiling so charmingly back at her.

"So, um... do you want to stick around a little while longer?"

"Yeah," Asami nodded after a pause. "That'd be nice."


	6. Chapter 5

The Republic City jail was a simple, severe building and mostly what one would expect of a city prison. The facility was fit to house long term inmates, with a four-floor cellblock, common rooms, and a high-walled yard. It was situated on the industrial sector of the city, and a local police station sat directly across the street as an additional watch. Asami entered via the visitors' gate and was escorted by a very proper officer to the visitors' lounge on the second floor. As they walked, the officer glanced cautiously over his shoulder at her.

"Do you remember me, Miss Sato?"

"Hm?" She looked up from her steps, lips pursing a moment as she tried to follow his question. "Have we met?"

"Not formally," he responded, looking ahead of him again as they walked. "I was underground in Amon's secret cells when you and Chief Beifong made your rescue. I'd lost my bending."

"Oh," she started and then social decency changed her tone. "I'm sorry to hear that, but I think I might remember now." She didn't; at the time her attention was focused on surviving Amon's fortified underworld and finding her missing Avatar, but she didn't want the officer to know that. "How are you?"

"Great," he chuckled back at her. "The Avatar fixed me and the rest of the boys a few weeks after that, but I decided bein' a beat cop was too high-paced for me. I was pretty down when you guys came in for us though, and I don't think I ever thanked you properly."

"You don't need to worry about that," she assured but he looked back at her.

"No, I really do. You and your friends and the Chief, you saved our lives. You know, there were people that had a lot of bad things to say about the Sato family after your old man was convicted, but I never believed a word of it. I always said 'that Miss Sato, she's different,' and people'd say 'well how do you know that, Jin?' 'Because, she saved my life,' and that'd shut them up."

The engineer felt her face start to glow under this unexpected praise, but fortunately they had reached the visitor lounge door, which officer Jin quickly held open for her.

"Thank you, Jin," she smiled humbly as she stepped past him and he tipped his hat to her.

"Of course, ma'am. If you need anything, at all, just let me know."

"I will," she promised in that same demure voice and looked around at the uninviting lounge of feeble wooden tables and chairs. She selected one in the corner, the same she'd sat at on her previous visits, and thoughtfully started to pull the pai sho board from her satchel.

* * *

"Hmm," Hiroshi Sato mumbled in this throat, stroking his goatee as he stared at the arrangement of pieces on the table in front of him. "Hmmm."

Asami arched a delicate brow at her opponent. "Humming at the board won't make the pieces fall in your favor," she noted.

"No," her father agreed and moved a fire tile over one of hers. "But it may distract you from what I'm up to," he smiled up at her and she snorted in response, then found herself grinning after a hard look at the board.

"Well played, dad."

The ex-chairman leaned back into his chair, satisfied. "Old and incarcerated I might be, but I'm not the dullest tool in the shed just yet."

Her grin broadened while she tried to think of how to manipulate him back into her trap. "If you start to loose your tact, you'll have to let me know. I need to make sure that's not hereditary."

He chuckled. "Trust me, dear, we Sato's only get better." He leaned forward again to resume his play. "And more giddy, it appears. Want to tell me his name?"

Asami cut her gaze up at her father. "Whose?"

"Whoever it is that has you in such a charmed mood," he responded, stroking his beard once more and studying the board. "I don't' think you're this happy just because I'm beating you at your favorite game."

"Maybe I am," she retorted and moved her piece. He harrumphed and she couldn't resist smiling again. "Maybe I just missed having a challenging opponent."

He nodded off-handedly. "Maybe."

They were quiet a few minutes as they both made their next moves, but now Asami found her thoughts utterly distracted from the game. Had she really been so obviously happy over the past few days staying at Air Temple Island? Did Korra coming back into town have that much of an affect on her after all? That was silly question, she decided immediately. She was thrilled that Korra was back. It felt as if... it felt like...

Asami blinked and let out a soft breath. She didn't want to admit what it felt like, but it was certainly something good. She cleared her throat, looking back up at her dad through the fall of her bangs. She wished that she could have talked to him about it: these flustering, confusing things, but then he'd know about her dalliances with another woman and was that something she wanted to talk about? They had only just begun repairing this very fragile thing between them, and if he so much as hinted at disapproval she wasn't sure if they'd be able to salvage their relationship after all. It was a conflicting question.

Hiroshi, however, had quickly noticed her weighted pause and looked back at her with interest.

The words caught lamely on Asami's tongue, and she sighed. "Okay, there's... someone."

Hiroshi waited patiently.

"Someone that means a lot to me... but," she sighed again and rubbed her forehead. "They were gone for a long time. We used to be together years ago and it was wonderful. But then they left, and told me that I needed to get on with my life. And I did, I thought. I had the business and this entire social life and for a while I don't think that I really ever thought about them at all. And then... he came back... and the moment we saw each other I just..." she shook her head, annoyed. Why was she like this over Korra? "I thought that I had moved on."

"What is he like?" Hiroshi asked mildly, moving a pai sho piece.

Asami stumbled over the thought of Korra being referred to as a boy, but then again the comparison was a bit funny. "He's... amazing," an image of Korra standing in the light of the southern spirit portal, preparing to go and do battle with her uncle for the fate of the world flickered suddenly to mind. " Brave," the Avatar taking young Kia under her arm outside of that dusty village, " compassionate," Korra putting that keychain into her hand. "thoughtful," the girl hopping in righteous indignation at the glacier festival, "funny, silly," Korra rocketing herself towards the ceiling of the ProBending arena, "he doesn't understand the words 'give up'," she sighed again.

"Handsome?" Her father offered and she smirked.

"Gorgeous. I just feel so differently when he's around. I feel... like a better version of myself."

Hiroshi smiled wanly. "You sound very in love."

She groaned and placed a hand over her eyes. "I don't want to be," she muttered finally. "He's hurt me twice now, how do I know that it won't happen again?"

He frowned a bit. "You don't," he responded honestly. "But, I know you dear, and you are wanting your logic to win out in a field where it has no place. No one can help how they feel, and there's simply no formula to matters of the heart. And you have a very, very good heart. I think that you should trust it from time to time," he opened his hands. "Like you did with me."

She tilted her head, feeling a unusual amount of emotion welling just behind her eyes. She sniffed it away and let out a soft sigh. "I'll think about it," she agreed finally and cleared her throat. "Let's finish this before you have to go."

"Sweetie, I'm not going anywhere," he chuckled and waved at the board, indicating that it was her move.

* * *

"Damnit," Asami seethed shortly between her teeth as she riffled through another filing cabinet, just as stuffed as the last. "Su," she called over her shoulder. "Where is the summer folio?"

A tight sigh sounded from her office desk. "Miss Sato, I told ya, I only know what's in the office. Maybe ya took it to your garage?"

The engineer tapped her teeth in annoyance. "I don't leave my work at the garage, I put things where they belong..." she closed the cabinet with a hasty click. "So the summer folio should be in the third cabinet."

Her secretary just shrugged helplessly back at her and returned to flipping through a stack of file folders on the desk. Asami resisted another groan of annoyance. She was certain that she had an applicable design in one of her other notebooks, something more suitable for what it was Raiko was wanting her to develop but so far she hadn't been able to find the initial sketchings and any of her recent originals were next to useless. No matter how she tried to approach the problem of the super weapon, her solutions were unworkable when she had no clear visual of just what she was supposed to be preparing against. Working with Varick wasn't helping as much as one would have thought, either. That particular stick of genius was as mismanaged as a flying lemur circus without Zhu Li.

Now it started to feel as if Varrick's disorganization was leaking into her own life, since she couldn't seem to keep track of her own notebooks.

"Um, knock knock," a familiar voice called from the door and Asami looked up in surprise. The Avatar was standing awkwardly half-in her office, tucking her bangs back in a motion that was heart-melting.

"Hi," Asami startled and then frowned softly. "What are you doing here?" Did she forget an appointment with Korra? She'd barely seen the girl since Bolin and Varrick had arrived as defectors from the Earth Kingdom earlier in the week.

"I just finished up a meeting with Raiko and thought I'd stop by," Korra shrugged harmlessly. "Thought maybe you'd like to go to dinner?"

Asami tilted her head, charmed. Did Korra just ask her out on a date? "That'd be great," she quickly scanned the office and piles of undone work, a bold deterrent to any youthful dreams of a social life. "But I can't get away tonight. I still haven't come up with a design for Raiko and he wants it by the end of the week."

Korra's expression pulled into a peevish frown. "Where's Varick? Isn't he supposed to be helping you?"

Asami resisted rolling her eyes. "He's a little busy throwing a party downstairs. He seems to think it'll help him work."

"That... actually sounds like something Varrick would say," she smirked. "I guess you're not going to that either?"

Asami didn't even bother responding vocally to that and Korra laughed. In the pause of her laughter, Asami had a sudden, pinging vision of the Avatar emerging from the bay and tossing back her wet hair in a glittering stream, like some impish water spirit incarnate. It made her heartbeat quicken all over again just to think of.

"Alright. Well, I'll let you do what you do, then. Just, make sure you actually eat at some point, okay?"

"I'll get around to it," she promised, pulling herself back to the moment, and the two shared a prolonged smile before the Avatar turned to go back the way she'd come.

Asami watched her disappear and for a moment she debated rushing after her to take up the offer anyway but she restrained herself. She needed to focus on the task at hand, and Korra was just the best sort of distraction. Resigned to her duty, Asami turned glumly back to her filing cabinets to find that elusive sketch.

* * *

It was a few hours later that evening when a soft knocking at the door brought up Asami's attention from where it had been focused on a blueprint on her drawing table. She checked her desk clock, which was pinging around nine, and cut a terse sigh. Su had left hours ago, so she was going to have to deal with the visitor herself and Asami was not exactly in the mood for pleasantries.

"Who is it?" She demanded crossly.

"The Avatar, master of the four elements, guide between the worlds!"

An abrupt laugh fell from Asami and she got up from her work. "Do you have an appointment?"

"Yes... I'm just a little late for it."

Asami opened the door and smiled at the bronze face which was turned up at her. "Better late then never," she remarked. "But I thought we agreed I couldn't go out for dinner..."

Korra surprised her by holding up a lidded basked. "Yeah, so I brought dinner in. I know geniuses forget to eat sometimes," she cocked a brow at her. "Is that okay?"

Was it okay? Was it okay that her ex girlfriend had strode right back into her life with a thoughtful gift of food and charming companionship at a time when all she needed was to work and all she wanted was to play?

Asami pressed her lips to keep from grinning like an absolute idiot. "Yes, it is." She moved for Korra to walk past her into the office but Korra's grin turned mischievous.

"I had something a little different in mind."

* * *

Republic City spanned for a square mile in front of them, gleaming beneath the last touches of sunset in all directions. From the rooftop of Future Industries tower, the city was a delicately undulating mass of streetlights and car horns and indiscernible hustle. It was warm, and alive, and something which Asami was so distinctly a part of. She wondered if she had ever felt so connected to her city as she did when gazing into its light.

"Want to take a drop?" Korra asked from the picnic blanket which she was arranging. Asami twisted from the safety ledge to peer aghast at her.

"No, I think I'll take my thrill seeking on the road, thank you very much," she responded as she moved to sit opposite Korra, watching what the Avatar was pulling from her basket.

"What about when you fly?"

"Well, I guess I have gotten pretty good at barrel rolling," she admonished. Korra opened several small boxes of spiced rice, egg-rolls, and thick slices of steaming eggplant. Asami eagerly took the offered chop sticks and admired her dinner, so sweetly provided. "I don't think I ever expected you to make me dinner."

Korra blushed somewhat and tucked her hair back behind her ear. "Well, I didn't exactly make it myself... I had some help."

"Pema cooked this, didn't she?"

"I... put it in the basket," she defended lamely and Asami laughed, like she always seemed to do around Korra. "I mean, it's no dinner at the Garden Club or whatever-"

"Don't start that," Asami cut her off and gave her a stern look. "I love this, just the way that it is."

Korra smiled slowly, appearing relieved, and dug in to her bowl. "So, how is your project going?"

She shrugged, not wanting to think about annoying topics at such a pleasant moment. "I don't really know, I'm not used to this sort of project. I haven't seen this Spirit Weapon for myself and I'm a little iffy on just how it works to begin with. Varrick tried to explain it to me but he calls every part of it 'the thing', which starts to get a little confusing."

"Hmm," Korra tapped her chin. "Maybe we could do some reconnaissance, get a better look at it up close?"

Asami hesitated. "It was hard enough for Su Beifong, Lin, and Toph to get away from Kuvira. And Bolin and Opal aren't exactly push overs either. And, I'm really not sure if we have the time. There's so much to do... I really feel like I can figure this out on my own, if I can just get it to click." She frowned at her dinner, wishing for the umpteenth time that she could fit the pieces in her head into just the right schematic and wondering why there was such a block in her mental space.

Korra watched her, mouth skewed pensively, and then a slow, pleasant sound wafted from the rooftop's edge. Asami heard it as well, but did not really register the notes until Korra shifted.

"Do you hear that?"

"Hm? Oh, that must be coming from the party Varrick's throwing. It's on the twenty-ninth floor, I think."

Korra got to her feet and went to stand at the safety rail, her motions lithe and athletic, and Asami found herself watching them in unsure fascination. Korra moved differently, she thought: there was a cautionary strength in her step, an awareness in her motion. Did she learn that when she had to teach herself how to walk again, or was it something she had developed on instinct?

"It's a pretty fun tune," Korra remarked, her toe tapping in rhythm as the song began to lift up towards them.

Asami felt the suggestion on her tongue and paused long enough to consider it fully before finally throwing caution to the evening wind. "Do you want to dance?"

Korra glanced back at her, incredulous. "Dance?"

"Yeah, that thing people do where they move around to music."

"I know what dancing is," she scoffed and looked back down to the balcony some floors below where party light was spilling. "I just don't know how to dance to stuff like this. Water Tribe music has a lot more drums."

Asami swept up to her feet, and approached the other woman with only a hint of shyness. "I could show you, it's not that hard."

Korra twisted to face her, and Asami thought that she could almost note a twinge of color on the Avatar's cheeks in the dying light. "Yeah but, I mean, we're both women. How do women dance together?"

Asami shrugged, feeling her confidence swell with Korra's uncertainty. "We didn't know how women make love together and we figured that out."

That got the reaction she wanted. Korra's color darkened all the way to her ears and suddenly she was looking anywhere but at Asami. When the engineer put her hands out however, Korra took them and she back-stepped to give them a little bit of space.

"Okay, so this is called the Leeston. It's named for some legendary dancer from the Fire Nation back when Aang was a kid," she lifted Korra's hands up around her shoulders and then placed hers on the other woman's. Korra looked from their hands to Asami with clear trepidation but the engineer just continued right along with her explanation. "When I step forward, you step back and tap your foot behind you..." she stepped into the motion, demonstrating how Korra was supposed to move. "And then you come towards me," they did the same but in reverse and Korra's shyness seemed to be shifting into her typical competitive resolve to be able to master any sort of new technique presented to her. "Step and tap... step and tap."

"Step and tap, step... and tap..." Korra mimicked, studying their feet.

"Bend your knee out some when you step," Asami advised and after some gangly motions, Korra managed the same smooth arc as she was using. Her devilish grin flashed suddenly up at Asami, who had to check an impulsive reaction. "See, its not that hard."

"It's kind of fun," Korra agreed as the bouncing notes from downstairs came to smooth and rhythmic close. There was a pause between the two women, poised as they were in one another's grasp, meeting gazes across a span of inches while both waited in uneasy anticipation for anything at all. Then, the next song began to work its way up the stories towards them and in unison Korra and Asami smiled, then stepped.

"Think you can keep up?" Asami challenged, feeling a vaguely childish tendency surface in Korra's presence.

Piqued, Korra smirked back. "I'm going to dance circles around you," she responded at once and they turned around the rooftop, a laughing contortion of limbs and smiles, fancifully alone atop the glowing city.

* * *

When she awoke, Asami was at first confused as to why she was so stiff. Her jade eyes fluttered open at the very earliest vestiges of dawn, which burned at the edges of the horizon through her office windows, and she stared at it in a moment of incomprehension before she finally sat up to take proper regard of herself. She was under her coat on the office couch, tussled but no worse for the wear. She frowned softly, slowly putting together the pieces of her evening: she and Korra had danced until their stomachs groaned in protest, and after their cold dinner they danced more. When her toes could no longer take the abuse of Korra's, they'd managed their way back into the office and the last thing Asami remembered was sitting on her couch, absorbed in Korra's stories, while the clock ticked ever further into the morning. She wasn't even aware of having fallen asleep, and now she realized that in whichever way she had slept, it was not with Korra. She wanted to debate whether or not that was a relief, until she noticed with a painful twinge that there was no sign of the Water Tribe woman.

A throaty noise from the floor caught Asami's attention and she glanced at the space beside the couch to see, much to her amused surprise, a slumbering Avatar on her side.

'Oh, Korra,' she swooned internally. 'You didn't have to do that.'

Korra didn't have to do a lot of the things she did, however. She didn't have to seek her out the way that she had, or bring her dinner, or spend her evenings helping Asami to temporarily forget the responsibilities which burdened her restless mind. She didn't have to be so charming, so attentive, or kind. She didn't have to make Asami feel like the most important person in a room, but she did. That was just her way.

Or, it was just her way with her.

A dreamy smile played along Asami's mouth as she watched the soft, spiced skin of Korra's features while she was placidly asleep. Her fingers twitched to reach out and stroke the back of Korra's hand, though she did not move. In some ways, she was afraid to break this twilight spell which held her rapt, and in other ways she was just afraid; because she was still in love with Korra.

She could fight it all she wanted, she could lie to herself all throughout the empty hours of the night, but the moment Korra had reentered her world so did the leagues of love which Asami had harbored for her. Korra brought all of her strength, courage, and wild beauty back into Asami's life and once again she'd fallen into it with finality. She was stuck with Korra, and she ached to wish she wasn't.

Asami realized, in her logical state, that it wasn't Korra's fault that she had left. She had also had plenty of time to come to terms with the fact that injured Korra was in no place to be responsible for another person's needs when she was so lost herself. Korra had even abandoned being the Avatar, for a short time, so how could Asami have expected her to carry the burden of another heart? But, culpable or not, loving Korra was frightening. She was the Avatar, and there was always the possibility of loosing her to something she could not yet comprehend. Was that something which Asami could live with?

Then again, gazing down at the slumbering form on the floor beside her, did she really have a choice?

 _'There is simply no formula for matters of the heart.'_

"Damnit, Korra," she muttered breathlessly.

A flicker of movement in the window pane grabbed Asami's attention and she tore her gaze from the Water Tribe woman to the fluttering outside of her window. A bird, smaller than her extended fingers, hovered in front of the glass, searching side-to-side for something she could not guess. The hummingbird wavered this way, silhouetted in the dawn, and something in the far back of Asami's mind shifted very abruptly forward.

"Hey," a sleepy Avatar garbled up at her from the floor but Asami's train of thought had switched from her contemplation over Korra and back to something she was much more comfortable worrying about. She blinked down at the girl.

"I think I have an idea."


	7. Chapter 6

Once news of Kuvira's superweapon reached Republic City intelligence, (via the defected duo of Bolin and Varrick) president Raiko had put several preventative measures into place: to begin with, the United Republic military and Armada were on full-alert and creating a protective barrier around the city. Secondly, the top minds available (Asami Sato and her entire Future Industries team included) were frantically at work on an anti-weapon, while the third priority of evacuating the city was under the administration of the city police. Unfortunately, the effort to clear the city of noncombatants had been slow going. Many citizens were unwilling to leave their homes over what they viewed as a minimal threat, while others seemed to hold to a unlikely theory that the train was an unreliable method to move them to safety. In an effort to assuage fears and impress the importance of the evacuation, Raiko was holding a special press conference at the city train station and had somehow managed to manipulate Korra into showing up with him.

The Water Tribe woman was itching to be back on the defensive front along General Irroh, but she managed to see the value in publicly supporting Raiko's initiative to get the people safely out of the city, and perhaps if the cameras showed the Avatar standing alongside him on the podium then people may take the warnings more seriously. She'd earned quite a lot of respect since her injury, it would seem, and people were a little more willing to listen to the advice of the Avatar these days.

She stood at attention beside Raiko, arms crossed behind her and trying to look involved in the conference instead of perusing the crowd for any signs of trouble. Mostly the station was full of journalists toting their gallon-sized cameras and the worried faces of the general public; no obvious threats to Raiko or herself. The Bending Brothers were in attendance as well towards the back of the crowd, giving Korra some added peace of mind. A shuffle among the bodies to her far left however caught her attention and to the Avatar's surprise, Asami appeared from the sea of bodies, dressed in a crimson coat and carrying her leather briefcase. She looked as if she'd just left the office.

The police obviously recognized the president of Future Industries and let her pass to walk up the stairs towards the balcony Raiko and Korra were speaking from, and the President interrupted his speech to greet her.

"Ah, here is Miss Sato herself. I'm sure she can speak to the reliability of the rail-line."

Korra tried to cover both her surprise and excitement of Asami joining them. She didn't realize that the engineer was supposed to be part of the address, and if she _had_ known she'd have been much less annoyed about being pulled from her Avatar duties. She hadn't seen Asami in over a week, since their rather enchanted picnic on the roof, and it was only the constant demands for her help in the city which had kept her anxiousness at bay. Korra had been worried that she had stepped over some unseen line when Asami rushed out of the office the morning after their impromptu dinner but the sensible part of her was sure that Asami had just felt the need to meet her deadlines. A hastily worded telegram which she received the following day attested to just that.

 _'Sorry to rush off. Have been busy working. I had a wonderful time that night. Will see you soon.'_

Korra kept the missive under her pillow, but the knot in her stomach only tightened every time she thought of the engineer.

At the podium, Asami gave Korra a brief smile as she leaned towards the microphone and Korra felt her cheeks warm.

"Yes, I can assure you all that the rail line is the safest and fastest way for you and your families to leave the city."

Someone in the crowd raised their voice. "Why can't we take the airships?"

"Airships are privately owned, if someone wanted to-"

"Not the police force ones!"

Korra 'tskd'. "The police and the military need access to those airships. They have to remain available for them to use. The trains are for the general public."

"That's right," Asami agreed. "They can move more people much faster and they don't have the same fuel requirements as an airship."

"So what you're saying, Miss Sato," one reporter raised his hand. "Is that the safety of the citizens of Republic City is an issue of cost."

Korra scowled but Asami reacted with boardroom class. "No, that's not what I'm saying. While the trains are being directed to the safe zones and the harbor is blockaded, very limited fuel transports are coming into the city at this time. There isn't enough fuel to take everyone that long of a distance, whereas the trains my team and I designed can run almost constantly."

The reporter who posed the question pursed his lips and Korra bit down a smirk.

Raiko cleared his throat. "Are there any further questions?" At once a cacophony of raised voices filled the lobby and this time Korra really did roll her eyes.

"All right, all right, enough," she raised her hands to quiet the crowd. "Look. The city has to evacuate. The army is doing their best to keep the citizens safe, and the city police," she nodded to Mako, "are going to do _their_ best to keep your property safe while you're away. No one asked Kuvira to bring her army here but that's what's happening and we're all working to protect you in the meantime. Just pack a bag, one per person, and get on the train."

There was a pause, and then one more soul raised a hand. "Avatar Korra, do you really think that the United Republic has a chance here? You yourself were beaten by Kuvira just a few weeks ago."

Korra sighed, fists clenched a moment at the humiliating memory, and then she lifted her chin. "That's true, Kuvira did beat me. But that doesn't matter anymore, because I'm still standing and as long as I'm alive I will always fight to maintain balance; as the Avatar and as a citizen of the world. As long as we choose to fight back, we have a chance."

The Avatar didn't see the look which Asami gave her then, but she did see the small nods of approval in the crowd in front of her.

"Well said, Avatar Korra," Raiko remarked solemnly and then looked out at the lobby. "I think that that's all for today. Thank you all for coming."

There was a collection of murmurs and bickering but the assemblage began to disperse and Raiko turned to both the young women.

"That was very helpful on both of your parts. Thank you for coming."

"Not a problem, Mister President," Asami responded genially, accustomed by now to talking casually with the leader of the United Republic. Looking at her over Raiko's shoulder Korra noted that the woman was a bit worn, no doubt from long hours in her workshop.

"How is the project developing?" He asked, to-the-point.

"Pretty well," she chewed her lip. "My staff is working almost nonstop, and we have five units completed so far."

"That's not very many," he frowned.

"Two weeks isn't very much time," Asami returned patiently.

Raiko harrumphed in begrudging agreement. "Of course. Well, please keep up the work, Asami." He nodded to her and then at Korra as well. "I'll see you both soon, I'm sure."

"Definitely," Korra jutted her chin and the president turned with his entourage, leaving Korra and Asami alone on the balcony together. Korra looked at the engineer standing across from her and a small smile spread across her cheeks. Three years and Asami still had this affect on her: she just couldn't seem to quiet her smiling when the other woman was around.

"You practically told the President of the Republic to shut up."

"Next time I may _actually_ tell him to shut up," she grinned and then wet her lips. "I'm glad I got to see you, it feels like I've been in a cave all week."

"You kind of have-"

A sound from their left, near the staircase, screeched against Korra's nerves and jarred her from Asami's jade eyes.

"Avatar Korra, do you have a moment to talk to the Daily Tribune?"

The Water Tribe woman pinched the bridge of her nose and opened her mouth to retort, but Asami pointed abruptly over her shoulder.

"Oh, it's Varrick, who recently defected from Kuvira's army and saw her superweapon first hand!"

The handful of reporters all turned in excited unison, cameras up and ready to snap a shot of the famous inventor but if Varrick actually had appeared on the landing, Korra would never know. The very instant that they were no longer the center of the press's attention, Asami grasped Korra's wrist and pulled her after her down to a short hallway and then into an office room. The frosted-pane door clicked closed and the Avatar, freed momentarily from the public eye, breathed a sigh of relief.

"Good thinking," she scoffed with her hands on her hips and rolled the aggravation from her shoulders. "If I have to talk to one more reporter today I might have to go into the Avatar State."

"They can start to wear on you," she agreed, walking around an empty desk which sat in the near middle of the small office. A window at her back glowed with the late afternoon sun, sparking on the streams of dust which sifted around her. The image had an almost beatific serentiy to Korra's eye. "They started to become a real pain in the ass after you went to the South Pole."

"What do you mean?" She shook her head, attempting to refocus her thoughts.

She shrugged and set her briefcase on the desk. "I guess everyone knew that we were close, and since no one could get in touch with you they did the next best thing: like stalk me and the boys."

"They stalked you?"

"Once, I was at dinner with some school friends. My waiter actually pulled out a notebook and asked me if you had ever astral-projected to the city and if you had a plan for the Earth Kingdom."

Korra pulled a face. "Yeesh. That must have been a fun dinner."

Asami chuckled quietly. "It was actually sort of funny, after I got over the surprise..." she hesitated and then lifted a shoulder. "But, back then I didn't exactly like to think about you."

Korra clenched her a jaw, feeling the implication and wondering if she really wanted to pull at this tempting thread. They had been dancing around the question for weeks now however; how much longer was she going to avoid it? How much longer was she going to falter like this? "What about now?"

Avoiding things never really was one of Korra's strong-suits.

Asami looked up at her, lips twisted secretively in a way that stung through the Avatar's rapidly beating heart. She'd seen that look oh-so-many times before. "Now? I really like it."

"Really?" She grinned, and her feet began to move around the desk towards Asami without the rest of her fully realizing. Like a captivated moth, she fluttered on the current of Asami's perfumed breaths towards her.

"Yeah."

"...I thought about you a lot, you know," she uttered in a low key, watching Asami watch her drift closer.

The engineer's brows threaded somewhat. "You did?"

"Asami, I thought about you every day. Even at my lowest, I thought about you and suddenly I felt a little better. I never stopped thinking about you." She was standing just in front of her then, and in the faux sanctuary of the office she was somehow hyper-aware of every tingle of dust upon her lashes, every soft lift of Asami's chest as she breathed slow and deep. The other woman's eyes didn't stray from her for a second, and Korra was warmed by a memory of a similar moment between them from a very long time ago,

Once upon a time, she'd stood in front of Asami in much this way: the sea clouds had been gloomy overhead and the wind was harsh upon their cheeks, but Asami had stared at her with this strange, vulnerable hopefulness. It had made Korra feel strong to be the one she was staring at, and swelled by that encouragement she had reached forward into uncertainty.

That moment rang clearly in Korra's mind while she stood in front of Asami again, only this time there were many, many things which were very different... though others had remained simply, and beautifully, the same. Her hand lifted to cup Asami's cheek and the heiress released the softest of sighs, coaxing Korra effortlessly to her-

"Uh, Korra, Asami?" The voice startled them both and they looked in unison at the frosted glass-pane door. "Is that you guys?" Bolin's timing was nothing if not exact.

On sudden reflection, hiding out in a room which had an opaque door was perhaps less than effective.

"Yeah..." Korra admitted, her irritation registering obviously. She dropped her hand from Asami.

"Can we come in? It's important."

Korra was prepared to tell Bolin that whatever the hell it was, it could wait, however Asami's hand squeezed around her's and the Avatar paused. The dry, silent look which the other woman gave her was surprisingly expressive and she sighed, resigning herself. The moment had been ruined, they may as well hear what Bolin had to say.

"Yeah, sure."

The door opened and the two women moved away from one another as the Bending Brothers shuffled inside and Bolin started to talk with animation.

"Okay, so, I can't stop worrying about it and I think that we need to scout out and find Kuvira's weapon."

Asami crossed her arms. "I thought that it was on a train."

"Yeah, probably," Mako nodded, standing just behind his brother. "Which means if we make a preemptive strike now we can cut it off before it ever comes near the city."

Korra frowned a little, deliberating. "I've been thinking about that too, actually. If it's as powerful as you and Varrick said, it's really too much of a risk to let it close enough to the city to be used."

"Exactly," Bolin pounded his fist into his open palm. "We need to send out a small force to sneak past the defenses and take the weapon out."

"We could do that," Asami decided. "With some planning."

"Y'see, I was hoping you'd say that," Bolin grinned broadly. "Team Avatar, back on the mission!" He posed, one hand on his hip and the other making a heroic clench of his fist but when no one cheered him on he deflated, looking back at the girls with some confusion. "We didn't interrupt something, right?"

Korra huffed and rolled her eyes, and then walked forward to put an arm over both boys' shoulders and lead them out of the room. "C'mon guys, let's get ready and go tell Raiko what we're up to." At the doorway she looked over her shoulder at the heiress, and with the spell broken, she was able to actually consider that she'd been acting too hastily after all. Ever since her return she had been drawn almost irreversibly back to Asami, but was that really where she needed to be? Was it best for either of them? The question wouldn't seem to let her go.

"Is there any chance of you staying here?" She asked with little hope. Not only did she hate to for Asami to be at risk (even as much as she trusted her in a battle), but the more time they spent together the more blurred the lines in Korra's head became.

"Not at all," Asami smirked as she strode after them, and Korra's heartstrings betrayed her yet again by strumming with excitement.

Team Avatar, indeed.


	8. Chapter 7

The wind whipped Asami's hair into a black banner behind her as Team Avatar traveled through the former Earth Kingdom skies, eyes on the horizon for something they could not yet guess... until it appeared like some dubious mirage among the canyons. An automaton, colossal in size and black against the sunset was ambling across the desert and at first Asami assumed she was in fact loosing her senses. It was impossible for anything manmade to be so large, wasn't it?

Bolin's shout alerted her to just how real the image was after all, and it suddenly settled in that Kuvira was better equipped for war than Asami had ever thought possible.

* * *

Korra stood on the battlements outside of the city, eyes settled fiercely on the gleaming metallic army just two hundred yards away. She was tense, waiting, watchful, but her ears were focused on something behind her. General Iroh was on the transmitter with President Raiko and as Kuvira's threats sounded through the wireless, Korra could almost sense the waver in Raiko's resolve from miles away. He was afraid of this massive mecha and this woman with her polished army. Even before the order came into Iroh's handset, Korra knew Raiko was going to stand down.

When Kuvira's next demand included handing herself over, however, Korra twisted on her heel.

"You need to get out of here," Iroh ordered in earnest, an ally to the very end. Korra nodded at him and grasped her glider.

"Raiko might be giving up but I'm not," she swore and he gave her a brief, firm look before she ran back through the line, meaning to get to the rest of Team Avatar as quietly as possible.

* * *

The atmosphere of the Future Industries warehouse on the edge of the city docks was restless under the weight of the moment. Korra knelt to untie Baatar Jr. from his chair, since he had successfully been bartered with Kuvira for the terms of her surrender. Korra was pleased, in some respects, to have finally have found the chink in Kuvira's seemingly impenetrable armor but something about the situation felt... uneasy. In fact, Korra mused as Baatar stood to rub his wrists, the simplicity in Kuvira's surrender seemed almost contrived. What was this nagging at the edges of her mi-

"Guys!" Mako, standing guard at one of the bay-facing windows, turned to the assembled group of Beifongs, airbenders, and Team Avatar. "Kuvira's aiming that thing right at us!"

"What?" Korra swiveled to look out the window while Baatar stumbled over his disbelief.

"She wouldn't," he protested but Korra wasn't wasting time to decide if Kuvira really was capable of sacrificing the person she loved. She sure as hell wasn't.

The Avatar turned and her eyes landed on Asami's shocked features, suddenly bathed in fuschia light as the Spirit Weapon blast shot towards them. The building shook with the imminent impact but Korra's hand found Asami's wrist and then the earth beneath the building was rising upwards all around them as five earthbenders entombed themselves in darkness.

With the warehouse and its collection of hummingbird mechasuits laying in rubble, the Team had retreated to Asami's office where she had kept two prototype suits. While Asami went to work on the prototypes, Korra and the airbenders made another attempt at toppling the colossus with wirecables, but the giant suit was better designed than they had expected and they were forced to once again retreat. They hobbled back into the workshop, beaten but not yet defeated.

"Hmm," Varrick rubbed his chin in thought while the last resistance against Kuvira's army wondered aloud what they could try next to slow the Emperor's march into the city. "I think I may have an idea.." he snapped his fingers. "Zhu Li, let's go."

"Sir?"

"It stands to reason that if I can stop a mechasuit with an electromagnetic pulse, then I can stop a _giant_ mechasuit with a _giant_ electromagnetic pulse."

Korra saw Asami's surprised expression and quick frown. "What is it?" She asked her in an undertone but the engineer just huffed back at her.

"I should have thought of that," she muttered unhappily. Varrick was already dragging Zhu Li to the other end of the workroom to gather supplies while the rest of the group headed for the office to plan their next move. "Well, it may give us more time to work on these." Asami turned back to the two standing hummingbird mechas, which Korra didn't think looked particularly aerodynamic. One had already fallen into a heap of crates and it had taken Asami ten minutes just to get it upright again to fix. However, the engineer had that look of resolve which Korra knew well, and it meant that one way or another those mechas were going to be in the air.

"What can I do?" Korra asked, following close behind. She couldn't stand to be inactive at a time like this, even after fighting against Kuvira's colossus for most of the day.

Asami stooped to crouch under a leg-piece of one of the two hummingbirds and strapped on her welding visor.

"I need a different nozzle for this torch. There's a box of them on the third shelf in the draft room. Can you bring it to me?"

Straight to business.

Korra hopped on her feet however, glad to have somewhere to put her anxious energy and she faux-saluted before jogging in the direction of the room. There was a wooden workbench, covered in stacks of journals and draft materials, and above it were three shelves just like Asami had described.

"Figures..." Korra grumbled when she saw a small flat box on the highest shelf. She gripped the bench to lift herself up (Asami would have had a much easier reach, but Korra decided to vehemently ignore that fact) and just managed to grab the box before nudging into a pile of journals. Papers slipped like gossamer to the floor and she sighed at the mess she'd made. "Great."

Box in hand, she bent to clean everything up before Asami realized (even in the middle of a fight for their lives she was fairly sure Asami would be willing to scold her for making a mess of her notes), but when she picked up an opened graph-book she faltered. Slowly, eyes stuck to the page, Korra eased to her knees and pulled the journal into her lap with slow reverence. There was a sketch there, in faded graphite, of a leg brace. The mechanism traveled up the back of a leg to hitch just below the base of the spine and some arrows and crossed-out notes crawled across the margins. On the opposite page was an anatomical diagram of a human body, with chi-points highlighted and corresponding to mechanical inputs of another brace design. The heading was titled 'K.2'.

Gingerly, Korra began to flip the pages and design after design appeared. Some were marked out by a flippant slash of a pen, some were grander than others and some downright ridiculous. There was one in particular which seemed to have caught the designer's interest, since it was outlined in strong black ink and a note beside it read in Asami's careful script: "Will need replaceable parts, Korra breaks everything."

She had begun to assume that the sketches might have referred to her, but everything she wondered was confirmed in a simple sentence. The designs were for Korra, and there were pages of them. Korra stroked her fingertips along the paper, outlining the contour of a device imagined to help her walk again.

"Hey, Asami needs those..." Mako's voice materialized and then trailed. Korra bit her lip, looking up at his figure in the doorway and he scowled. "What's wrong?"

In answer, she held up the book. "Look at this," she muttered and he stepped forward to take it from her hands.

"What is it?"

"They're designs Asami came up with, to help me walk," she answered in a blank tone and leaned backwards against the bench, her arms crossed.

"Wow," he remarked after a moment. "These are pretty good. Do they work?"

Korra shrugged in response and then shook her head. "I don't know," her voice was coarse and quiet. "I never knew about them. I was busy hating Zaheer and blaming myself for being weak, and Asami was trying to build a way to help me. And then I told her to forget about me." She looked up at her friend, who was watching her with invitation. "What is she doing, Mako? Why did she ever love me?"

It seemed unfathomable that Korra could have tried over and over to put so much distance between her and Asami and despite it all, the other woman would still try at just about anything for her sake. She'd never fully realized just how much the engineer cared, but the journal was full of the proof of Asami Sato's love; written out in numbers and diagrams.

Mako sighed, long and slowly. He crossed his arms and glared at the floor for several moments, and then huffed again. "Because, well, why wouldn't she? You're selfless and brave, and you always try your hardest. Getting hurt didn't stop that. Neither did loosing your past lives. Not even when you thought you lost your bending. You've always been you, and that's what Asami loved."

She shook her head, refusing to agree. "I don't know what I'm doing. I thought that maybe I could come back and make things work with her, but I feel so guilty for leaving in the first place. I put her through so much, I don't want to do that again. She deserves better than that."

Mako huffed once more. "Look, I've known you both for a long time, and neither of you were ever as happy as you were when you were with each other. When I was a kid I didn't really get that, but I do now. If you think Asami was happier after you left, you're wrong. And I bet you weren't happier without her either. Asami's not stupid, she knows that you being the Avatar means there's always a risk... but everyone else who loves you knows that too. And we accept that. You dumped Asami because you thought she couldn't handle being with the Avatar, well maybe you need to let her make that decision for herself." He pointed at her suddenly. "And you need to do it soon."

Korra's blue gaze traveled from him back to the floor, and slowly she set her jaw. The Water Tribe woman nodded and started to her feet suddenly. "Yeah, you're right." She grabbed the box of nozzles she was originally sent for and looked at Mako for a moment before abruptly putting her arm around his back in a firm, if unexpected hug. "Thanks Mako."

He faltered for half a moment and then awkwardly hugged her back. "What are ex-boyfriends for, right?"

"Right," she chuckled and let him go. They shared a smile, warm and heart-felt, and then Korra stepped past him to go back into the workroom, set on finding Asami. She had been hesitating for weeks, for years, and enough was finally enough.

When she walked out on the workroom floor it was empty but for the woman crouched with a cone of blue light beside the hummingbird mechas. Asami seemed to have sensed Korra's appearance in the room however, because she glanced in her direction and lifted her visor.

"Something wrong?" She asked from across the room, removing her headpiece, and when Korra did not answer she shut off the torch. "Korra?"

Her question were curtailed as the Avatar placed the box down and strode towards her with purpose, lifting her hands to Asami's face and pulling her bodily against her in a full and sudden kiss. Asami's shock resounded in her strained lips for only an instant before she moved fluidly back against Korra, a wistful moan sounding high in her throat. The torch and mask clanged loudly to the workroom floor but they could not hear it. Korra pressed forward to taste Asami's tongue and then her hands were moving to wrap almost aggressively around the other woman's waist. She drew their hips tightly against one another while Asami's gloved fingers clawed back into her shorn hair.

What had begun as an impulsion, inspired by long-repressed desire, was quickly blooming into something like a frenzy in the back of Korra's mind. She felt unbridled, released from tethers she had wrapped so securely around her heart for so long that she'd forgotten that she was suffocating. Korra gasped and pulled at Asami's lip, suspended between a driving physical ache for the other woman's embrace and a surge of emotion she wasn't entirely prepared for. Just as Asami's hands began to move down the length of her back, those feelings broke from Korra in a strained croak that she couldn't fight down.

She blushed and put her head into the crook of Asami's neck and the other woman didn't so much as flinch. At once she wrapped around her, holding her dearly. They shifted against one another, lips falling in soft glances on pieces of skin as they simultaneously attempted to calm down in the midst of something so tumultuous and sudden. They'd been moving away from and towards this moment for weeks, possibly years, and now it was nearly overwhelming.

"Korra," the engineer finally breathed, barely breaking their kiss.

"I know," she tried to swallow back this current coursing just below her skin. "I just needed to tell you how I feel before this gets any worse. I don't know how the day's going to end but... I mean..."

Asami pet back her hair, lips twisted in a somber smile. "I need to tell you something too," she interrupted Korra's aimless sentence and the Avatar's gaze grasped on to hers, bright with excitement and adoration and curiosity. "I came to the South Pole, after I got your letter. I thought I could talk you out of it, but I'm actually glad I didn't. You were right: I didn't know what you were going through but I think you came out better for it, on your own."

Korra scoffed, emotion making her tongue thick. "On my own. I can't ever seem to do anything right on my own. I always end up needing help, and putting the people I love in danger. I just wanted to break away and do it by myself, for once."

"Korra," she repeated the name as if the other woman were quite simple, and then squeezed her close with a chuckle. "It's okay that you need a lot of love. You're the Avatar, you feel responsible for the whole world. We can love you back for that, you know."

Korra bit her lip as she was pulled back into Asami's arms and in the mechanical dust of the room she clung to her. Just outside the workroom glass there was an army, marching down on top of them, and yet all Korra could want for a few brief moments was this embrace. "When this is all over, we should talk."

"Yeah," Asami agreed quietly and slipped out of Korra's arms. Her gaze was warm when she looked back at her, and glimmered with something which she quickly brushed away. "Did you find the nozzles?"

"Yeah," she looked over her shoulder to where the box had fallen and then squeezed Asami's fingers one last time. "Let's get back to work," she suggested with a grin.

They had waited three years to stand in front of another the way that they did now, what was a few more hours?


	9. Chapter 8

Asami swayed on her feet, struggling to keep one heel in front of the other on-top the rubble and disarray that was once the Republic City streets. The remains of her parachute were discarded behind her, among crumpled cars and smoldering storefronts, and in front of her was the colossal mecha which Kuvira had brought to her city. The shattered detritus of the colossus smoked darkly above the skyline and something told Asami that the fight between Korra and the Earth Empire was not entirely at a close. Not just yet. The sounds of a fight reverberated back to her through the lifeless streets and, focused on the idea as if it were the only option in all the world left to her, Asami stumbled towards it.

Someplace in this clouded, ruined street was her father's body, trapped inside the remnants of the hummingbird suit they'd worked so hard to build together. She knew that she should have sought it out, but as long as the fight continued then she could ignore the welling grief inside her chest. She didn't have to accept that her father was dead until the day was done, and it wasn't done yet.

A harrowing blast from ahead of her, in the direction of the Spirit Wilds, startled her all over again and she leaned a hand on a wall for a moment's support as she stared with dread in the direction of the blast. To her growing horror, a fresh beam of violet light swung wildly into the sky around her, severing through skyscrapers and street-ways alike. There was something even more frightening to the beam of raw, concentrated spirit energy however, and that was the high pitched strain accompanying it. Something had gone from wrong to worse, and the engineer's mechanical mind recognized the warning signs just moments before a second explosion burst against her ears. White-violet light appeared at the apex of the wilds, like some poisonous sunrise, and Asami had a moment to wonder at the weird beauty of it all before realizing just how much danger she suddenly was in.

Survival instincts snapped her attention back to her immediate surroundings and a darkened railway tunnel stood out among the dust. Covering her nose and mouth with her glove, she just barely managed to duck into the shelter of the brickwork as the spirit light surged past her. For long moments she leaned into the cold brick, utterly alone within the transient explosion, and all that she could hear through the roar of energy was her own terrified heartbeats. She squeezed her eyes closed, tears budding at the corners, as she tried to quell the abiding fear in her limbs. Her friends were out there, somewhere, in this violence. Everything and everyone she loved was bathed in that brilliant light and when it was extinguished would any of them remain? Was this the end of it then?

Gradually, the light began to fade and with it the crinkle of spiritual static until true stillness finally was all that was left. Hesitant at first, Asami lifted her eyes to the street and her boots ventured back into the rubble to see what, if anything, was still standing.

The city, for the most part, appeared intact, which was as good a sign as she could hope for... but something new caused her to wait, breath clasped between her teeth. Another beam of strange light appeared at the horizon, rising skyward in a pure column of glowing yellow. For a moment, she thought it was perhaps the precursor of another explosion but she recognized something in the calm brilliance and she finally gasped with realization. It was a Spirit Portal.

The fight was over then, wasn't it?

Just before she hummed with relief she realized that without a doubt Korra had been at the heart of that explosion. Her stomach twisting painfully, Asami took off at a run.

* * *

The airbenders and Earth Empire soldiers were already riffling through the spirit wilds by the time Asami caught up and at a glance she could tell that Korra was not among them. Her heart lurched again, but Tenzin caught her eye.

"We haven't found her yet," he announced sternly and, recognizing what he did not say, Asami nodded. As a group they moved further into the viney growth until Tenzin stopped and pointed into the center of the decimated wilds, were the column of light emanated. "It's a Spirit Portal," he half-whispered in awe.

A shadow appeared in the beam, malformed at first but then it settled into something recognizable and beautiful, and relief spilled from Asami in an excited cry, "Look, it's her!"

Korra, ambled into the wilds from the portal with Kuvira slung half off her shoulder and for a brief instant she looked up and landed her brash, tired smirk on Asami. The fight was over.

* * *

The ferry played a stream of cool spray upwards against Korra's bronzed cheeks and she watched the prism-color light which arched from it with glad appreciation. It was nice to notice the little things, now and again.

"Korra," Bolin whined from behind her and she twisted to mildly appraise her friend. He held up a green embroidered suit on a hanger, pointing to the breast. "There's a stain! The wedding's going to be ruined!"

She tilted her head and gave him a sympathetic smile. "I don't think anyone's going to notice... I mean I don't really see anything there."

Bolin's pout only intensified. "I'm officiating Varrick's wedding, which means that everyone is going to be looking at me and everyone is going to see that my suit is dirty and its totally going to take attention away from Zhu Li and its her day and then it's going to be my fault that the wedding is a disaster."

"Wow." Korra just slowly shook her head back at him. "Do you think that maybe you're just a little nervous about officiating?"

He shrugged, chagrinned. "Maybe. I don't know why though. I mean, we just fought a giant metal monster two weeks ago. You'd think that talking in front of a bunch of people would be a duck walk."

"Yeah..." she shrugged and took a step from the ship's bow. Behind them, across the bay, the distant sounds of construction were already filtering along the skyline. "Which means that you probably should just relax. You're going to do great."

"Well, what if... I don't know. What if Varrick doesn't show?"

Korra sighed. "Then we'll hunt him down and march him to the altar."

"What if Zhu Li doesn't show?"

"Then we'll wish her good luck and applaud her for finally making a good decision."

He pulled a face at that, but then nodded in reluctant agreement. "What if the flowers are the wrong color?"

"No one will notice."

"Well..." he looked around them on the boat. "What if we loose the rings?"

Korra tapped her breast pocket. "Got 'em."

"And the Water Tribe necklace? Those have to be handmade, we can't just replace that!"

Korra's cheeks colored a shade but she tapped her pocket next. "It's right here Bolin. Nothing is going to go wrong, we're going to have a good time and finally relax some."

He sighed and slumped his shoulders. "Okay, you're right. I just need to take a deep breath," and he did. "And calmly find my zen."

Korra smirked. "You may need a little more practice finding 'zen'. Tenzin has some tips, you know."

"True, true. He's going to let me stay on the Island for a little while too."

"I'm sure Opal's going to be happy about that."

"Yeah," he grinned a bit goofily. "I think it will be fun, us all staying on the island together. You should convince Asami to come stay too."

Korra hesitated, looking back towards the island which they were steadily approaching. "I tried to, but she's been pretty... hectic, ever since her dad died. I barely see her. She's either in meetings with Raiko, or her staff, or contractors. I don't think that she wants to be around anyone right now, and I can definitely relate to that."

Bolin frowned gently. "It sounds like she could use a break."

"Yeah..." she agreed, a bit wistful, before smiling at him. "She's coming to the wedding tonight though. Maybe we can get her to unwind some."

"Oh and then we can force Mako to have fun too."

Korra laughed and, for a moment, allowed the sun to warm her cheeks and forget the calamity of the city while they sailed towards the island. When Bolin wasn't looking, her hand clenched in her pocket, making sure her burden was still there after all.

* * *

The temple courtyard had never looked so distinct: painted panels wrapped around the border to give a sense of the southern snowcaps and golden lanterns were hung across the pavilion for ambiance. Rows of chairs were wrapped in cerulean satin and the arch was festooned with polite pink roses. All in all, Asami thought it was a charming way to combine the South and the Continent in one united ceremony.

Although the wedding had yet to begin, the chairs were already full of people from both the Continent and the Southern Water Tribe, including Chief Tonraq, the Beifong clan, and even president Raiko. When Tonraq and Senna had arrived and chosen seats near Asami, the Water Chief had given her a particularly warm hug and a smug wink, which suggested that maybe Korra had already had a talk with her father. That thought alone was emboldening and caused Asami to gladly accept the Chief's greeting.

She was seated in the second row next to Mako, who was somehow just as handsome in an arm sling, and she had chosen a scarlet sling-shoulder dress for the occasion. Asami was aware of just how much it made her stand out in the blue-washed crowed, however she didn't exactly care since she was equally aware of just how good she looked in red: there was someone at the event that day whom she wanted to impress, after all.

Bolin walked down the central aisle, charming in a full breasted suit, and waved at people as he passed like the social-ham that he was. He saw her and shouted out a grinning 'Hey Asami!' and she managed a smile in return. She hadn't been particularly amicable over the past few weeks since her father had passed, but today she was feeling a little closer to normal. Just a little.

"Hey, is this seat taken?" A wild, spiced scent tingled at the edges of Asami's senses and she glanced up to see an image which would burn forever in the nebulous of her mind. The woman was dusky and lithe, eyes shimmering a brilliant blue which complimented the color of her Water Tribe dress. She was calm, firm, and at the corner of her mouth was a flicker of something mischievous which caused Asami to forget to respond. She had grown accustomed to the Avatar, and to the goofy Water Tribe girl whom she was the rest of the time, but this brazen beauty was something she had been unprepared for entirely. Why had she never seen her this way?

"No," she answered finally and watched Korra smile back and then slide into the empty chair beside her, which had obviously been reserved for the Avatar. Suddenly Asami's stomach was twisting and she couldn't understand why. All Korra had done was sit beside her but she felt invigorated; awake. "You look beautiful," she said in an undertone, trying to regain her typical poise.

Korra gave a biting laugh and then met her eye. "That's what I was going to say," she returned. Asami fluttered with the implied praise and wanted to tell her something else, but Varrick marching down the aisle with his entourage caused them both to look around. The trade mogul approached the altar and adjusted his lapels, gave the crowd a big wave (getting a short applause in return), and then fell into a quiet discussion with Bolin. Asami saw him slip something into Bolin 's hand and she hoped inwardly it wasn't a bribe to do something stupid. Or illegal.

"I can't believe Varrick is actually getting married. He always seemed kind of..." Asami tried to find a word, glad to have something neutral to talk about while Korra was looking like the sort of woman which could actually intimidate her.

"A selfish asshole?" Korra finished for her and they shared a quiet giggle.

"Yeah. I think escaping Kuvira really had an affect on him."

"Kuvira had an affect on all of us," Korra amended cryptically. "But I learned a lot from her. In some ways, I'm glad we met..." she glanced at the decimated skyline behind them. "I could have done without the mecha though."

Asami snorted. "As terrible as that thing was, you have to hand it to Kuvira. The world's never going to be the same after what she did. Between the weapon and the colossus and the mark she left on the Earth Kingdom, everything is going to be a lot different from now on."

"Yeah," Korra agreed quietly, turning her gaze on the podium. "But I'm kind of excited about that."

Asami looked at her, admiring the way the lanterns overhead bloomed upon her cheeks and updone hair and thought to herself that Korra really was a wonderful Avatar. "Me too."

From behind them, a peel of flutists rose into the air and the crowd all turned in their seats to greet the white-dressed woman who approached the courtyard. Zhu Li was lovely and blushing under the eyes of so many people on her at once, or maybe it was just Varrick's attention she was feeling so warmly. She tucked in a smile and began her procession down the center aisle towards her chosen groom. Between the seats, Asami's fingers found Korra's and at once the other woman squeezed her hand while they watched love bloom in happy silence.

* * *

 _'Let's take a vacation, just you and me. We can go anywhere.'_

 _'Anywhere? I'd actually love to see the Spirit World.'_

 _'Perfect. Let's do it.'_

Korra smiled at the memory as she pulled on her navy fingerless gloves and picked up her pack. The dorm-room was lit strictly by the quarter moon light from open window, the better to cover her tracks for when she slipped silently from the temple. There was a note on Tenzin's desk, brief and to the point. It said that she was taking a break, and to not worry since Asami was going with her. She didn't bother to tell him where they were heading, since that would probably defeat the purpose, but she did promise to contact him in a few weeks. She laughed to imagine his expression when she contacted him from the Spirit World.

She left the temple and headed down the walkway towards the docks but veered right before any of the late night guests could take notice of her. She didn't have any interest in talking to politicians, aristocrats, or even her friends. For now, her mind was elsewhere.

It was no grave hardship to slip into the bay from the cliffs and waterbend her way across the bay, and then she continued on through the slowly healing city alone. Naga would pout at being left behind, but the Spirit World was no place for a polarbear dog and she'd have Pabu to play with in the meantime. The world would be fine without her, for a couple of weeks.

She was only a few steps on her journey and already it felt good in more ways than one to be on the road again. The air seemed crisper, more full of potential and promise, and there was a strength in Korra's step as she worked her way towards the Spirit Wilds. She knew that she was not the same woman as three years ago, or even six months ago. She was a more developed person, and a different sort of Avatar than she had once believed herself to be but she was happy with that as well. She had told Tenzin that she felt that she had had to suffer in order to understand suffering, and the more that she considered Amon, Unalaq, Zaheer, and Kuvira the more she thought that perhaps she had needed to know all of those enemies in order to realize the fault in herself. She had in her a tendency for single-mindedness and she at times lacked patience and even understanding, but she had come to realize that though these things existed in her they did not need to define her and they did not need to limit her. The part of her which was human was faulted. The part of her which was Avatar was determined to still seek truth, and knowing that she could do that gave an added weight to Korra's stride.

She arrived at the edge of the wilds, and whatever personal ruminations which she had been musing on were ended when her gaze fell on the figure waiting for her in the light of the portal.

Asami was dressed for a hike, in her worn travel gear and bag. She seemed to have sensed Korra's arrival, since she turned towards her and a small, velvet smile tugged at her lips. It was the smile of someone who knew many secret things, and wasn't giving any of them away. Not yet.

For a moment, Korra stood perfectly still and the two women simply looked at one another in a moment of quiet appreciation. There was no sense of urgency, no external worry or introspective confusion. In that moment, watching and being watched by the person she loved most and truly, Korra could not recall the last time she had felt so peaceful. She approached slowly and without a word she took Asami's hand, which squeezed in her grasp.

"Ready for this?" She asked, impishness leaking into her tone.

"Absolutely," Asami answered.

Two pairs of footsteps turned in-time toward the portal, which twined around them as filaments of ethereal warmth. The energy of two worlds kissed upon their skin and filled into their senses, drawing them seamlessly from one universe into the next, from one lifetime into another, and on and on in the cycle of life and time.

-End-


	10. Epilogue

Asami felt warm, all over and all around. There was a warm breeze against her skin, a warm body beneath her cheek, and a warm fluttering in her breast. She was content in such a way she'd never before known, and all the better was that in the Spirit World it was quite easy to imagine that this sensation of happiness was indefinite. It seemed very possible that she was always going to be this happy.

The engineer snuggled deeper into Korra's lap, eyes still closed, and took a deep breath of the mushroom field they had paused in. Korra's back was to a mushroom stalk twice the height of the two of them and they were well sheltered by the lumpy awning. It was just somewhere around noon, or whatever passed for noon in the spirit world, and a break from their hike had turned into a nap of sorts, the way that most of their breaks did. In the Spirit World, time constraints were little more than a mental construct.

A soft weight fell someplace on her leg, and Asami opened a sliver of her jade eye to see a squat, squash-shaped spirit resting on her knee. The spirit peered inquisitively at her, and she gave it a small smile before closing her eyes again. The spirits had at first surprised and somewhat alarmed her, but after a week in the other world she was becoming very used to their intrusive curiosity, and even some of the more barbed attitudes of the wiser ones.

"She's not really asleep, you know," the spirit piped up, looking at Korra, and Asami pursed her lips. Korra's fingers pet back through her black hair.

"She's not?"

"Nope."

"Tattle-tale," Asami smarted mildly, still with her eyes shut and not wanting Korra to stop stroking her hair.

She felt a brush of air at her nose and opened her eyes to see the spirit standing directly in front of her chin. The spirit blinked large eyes at her and then pointed its nub arm up at Korra.

"Why are you so nervous?"

"Me?" Korra demanded.

"Yup," the spirit nodded.

"She's nervous?" Asami pressed, smirking. The spirit nodded again and faded from view, only to appear on Asami's knee once more.

"Now she's blushing."

Intrigued, Asami leaned up to look at her girlfriend, who was glowering at the pudgy spirit-snitch. Just as promised, the Avatar's cheeks were burning brighter by the second.

"Why are you nervous?" She asked, laughter lilting in her voice. Korra was adorable when she blushed.

"I'm not," Korra retorted, petulantly, and then waved at the spirit. "Shoo, get out of here."

"Aw," the spirit whined and faded again. This time it appeared on Korra's shoulder. "Why?"

"Because!" Korra growled and picked the spirit up to place on the grass. She patted at its backside to spur it along. "You've caused enough trouble already."

The spirit continued to whine but did begin to totter away, and Asami looked from the translucent creature back to Korra expectantly.

"Well?"

"Ugh!" Korra groaned and leaned back into the mushroom stalk. She huffed, and then straightened. "Okay, okay." She surprised Asami by sitting up on her knees in a formal manner and reaching into her backpack. "There's something I wanted to give you, I just was looking for the right time."

"Oh," Asami grinned and sat up properly as well, facing across from Korra in light of the ceremony of the occasion. She remembered distinctly the last time Korra had given her something, and it had been plopped into her hand almost accidentally then accompanied by an embarrassed complaint. She was expecting something similar, but when Korra pulled a glossed wooden box from her satchel she was genuinely surprised.

Korra cleared her throat, still blushing a ruddy color, and pushed the box across the grass towards Asami with her fingertips.

"This is for you."

Intrigued, Asami looked from her lover to the box and carefully lifted the lid. Inside, on a bed of linen, was a round pendant on a silver chain. The pendant was red glass, and shimmering in the center of it was a dark blue shape like that of a broad-toothed gear. It was lovely, and although she had not seen its like she wondered that it felt slightly familiar... and then she realized two things simultaneously. It was a necklace, and it was made just for her.

Stunned, Asami looked from the necklace to the Avatar, who was not quite meeting her eye.

"Asami," she cleared her throat, rigid with formality. "I know that I don't always make it easy to be around me. I'm the Avatar, and I always will be, which means that half of me will always belong to the whole world. I can't promise you that nothing bad will ever happen, or that I won't have to be gone sometimes to do what I need to do so I can maintain balance, but," she took a breath from what sounded like a very practiced speech. "If you want the other half of me, the half that's just Korra... then it's yours for as long as you want it." Finally, she brought her eyes up to Asami's, and they were flickering with the Water Tribe woman's worry and hope. "You don't have to say yes, you don't have to say anything, but I wanted to give you this so you know that no matter what happens, I'm always going to come back to you. Because you're where I belong. Because I love you."

Asami swallowed. Her eyes landed on the necklace once more and she reached out to stroke the glass with the tips of her fingers before picking up the box to hold reverently in her hands. She heard the tiny intake of breath from Korra, but she didn't look back at her as she pulled the necklace from the box to examine more closely.

"I know you're not Water Tribe," Korra was explaining in a nervous tone. "And I know you like red, and I know you like to dress fashionably so I picked a chain instead of a ribbon and it's red... for you and then the blue... is supposed to be me. The guy that made Varrick's made it, I was supposed to make it myself but I don't know how to do that kind of thing. You don't even have to wear it. I mean, I know it's not really classy or-"

"Korra." Korra stopped at once and looked back at her, almost desperately. "It's perfect," she promised and lifted the necklace to clasp behind her neck.

Korra's face broke into a slow smile. "Because you love me?"

She wet her lips, feeling her own smile break across her face. "Because I love you."

And she did. She had ever since the first moment she'd seen Korra shifting nervously across the dance floor of the Republic City gala all those years ago. Ever since she'd witnessed the way Korra refused to be cowed by an extremist assassin, or a queen, or a god. She'd loved the Water Tribe girl in all her brashness, all her joy, all of her angst. She loved Korra in a way that distracted her, emboldened her, ensorcelled her and it was clear that nothing was going to change that. One way or another, her heart was utterly stuck on Korra, and she may as well accept that.

She secured the necklace in place, and smiling, leaned into Korra's exuberant embrace. The Spirit World sun glimmered overhead, casting them in shade and warmth, and Asami proudly accepted her role as the one to care for the Avatar. After all, Avatars just needed so much love.

 _This was a surprisingly emotional ending for me, personally. It's been ten months that I've worked on this project but I'm glad to say that it's concluded, and I feel bittersweet but happy with it._

 _Thank you again for reading, and if you find yourself missing my writing I would propose going to my page and looking at my published novel, 'The Venex'. It's much different than 'A Second Glance', of course, but it's definitely my style._

 _As for this ending of 'A Second Glance', fear not, dear reader, there is a Book 5. When that will be posted, I can't say. This has been a very enjoyable experience for me but at this point I feel a bit finished with the story, which is not to say that it wont be picked up again. I would like to preface that Book 5 will be nothing like the previous books, taking place at a time when Korra is a mature Avatar and in a much evolved world, but still with all of our beloved characters. It will also be something which is entirely me, not bound by Canon (which is why it sounds so fun)._

 _Well, that's the close for the time being. Be well and remember, quoted from my favorite character of the series,_

 _"There is nothing wrong with letting people who love you, help you. Not that I love you. I just met you." - General 'Uncle' Iroh_


End file.
